FTX and collapses like Signature, Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank show need for stronger consumer protection, governance norms, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial Stability Report Source
Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of the most relevant crypto and economic development news from Latin America during the last week. In this issue: Latin American nations ink an agreement to reduce inflation, Brazil-based BTG Pactual launches its own dollar-pegged stablecoin, and Argentina launches yet another dollar exchange rate. Latin American Nations Sign Pact to Fight Inflation On April 5, eleven countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela, signed an agreement to fight inflation by adopting a system that will create facilities for exporting…
Tether (USDT) continues to benefit from the ongoing turmoil in the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin industry with its market capitalization growing significantly in Q1 2023 at other stablecoins’ expense. Tether market cap reaches $80 billion On April 6, the circulating market cap of USDT surpassed $80 billion for the first time since May 2022 with a gain of $15 billion so far in 2023. USDT circulating market cap 12-month performance. Source: Messari On the other hand, the market caps of its chief rivals, namely USD Coin (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD),…
“When news about unlimited support for bank deposits made the rounds, bitcoin prices exploded from $20,000 to $28,000 within a matter of days,” said Thielen in a note to clients on Thursday. “But it would appear that holders of USDC either converted their Circle stablecoin into Tether’s USDT or that they simply sold $10 billion of USDC and bought bitcoin instead.” Source
Like many stablecoins, BTG Dol token is also pegged to the US dollar. Latin America’s biggest investment bank, BTG Pactual, has just announced the launch of its own stablecoin – BTG Dol. According to an official statement from the bank, the stablecoin will run on the Polygon network and is already available to clients. The bank’s choice of blockchain network does not exactly come as a surprise though. This is considering that Polygon is compatible with Ethereum and backs several major brands including Disney and Starbucks. It might also be…
BTG Pactual, one of Latin America’s largest investment banks, has introduced a dollar-backed stablecoin through its crypto platform Mynt. Source
Despite being touted as a game-changing innovation, the decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem is still not connected to fiat rails largely because of regulatory and compliance issues, Torsten Stuber, the CTO at Pendulum says. According to Stuber, the defi ecosystem will succeed in getting more traditional financial institutions on board once “a substantial amount of liquidity needed to facilitate efficient trading” is in place. Defi’s Perceived Lack of Regulation a Barrier to Adoption In addition, Stuber, whose firm uses the Polkadot blockchain to bring fiat networks to the decentralized finance ecosystem,…
Tether, the firm behind the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, reportedly allowed its clients to send funds through Signature Bank’s payments platform — granting the firm access to United States banks. According to an April 4 Bloomberg report, Tether had a pathway to the U.S. banking system by instructing its users to send dollars though Signature’s Signet to its Bahamian partner Capital Union Bank. The report cited “people with knowledge of the situation,” who added this system was in place at the time regulators took control of Signature in March.…
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino, in response to the article, said the company has no exposure to Signature Bank. Source
Major Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual continues onboarding new cryptocurrency services with the launch of its own stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar. BTG Pactual is preparing to launch the BTG Dol, a new stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 ratio, using the bank’s custody services. Announcing the news on April 4, BTG Pactual said that the stablecoin would enable holders to “dollarize” a part of their equity, and help customers interact between the traditional financial system and the new digital economy. “We are innovating in using…