“We started working on Libra together back in 2019; Fireblocks, from a secure wallet perspective, and First in terms of payment protocols on the blockchain,” said First Digital CEO Ran Goldi. “We think that between the PSPs [payment service providers] both companies work with, we probably have over 2 million merchants that we can serve in 2022.” Source
Blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks has finalized the acquisition of First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payment platform, as part of a broader effort to expand its payment capabilities for the cryptocurrency sector. The acquisition gives Fireblocks additional resources to enable payment service providers to acquire cryptocurrencies and accept payments in digital assets, potentially opening the door to wider use cases for the emerging technology. According to Fireblocks, merchants today are eager to integrate crypto payments but high wallet integration costs and manual Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering screening…
Silvergate Capital (SI) is still planning on a full 2022 launch of its stablecoin but will first focus on regulatory clearance, and then a pilot program, said Chief Strategy Officer Ben Reynolds, speaking at the Canaccord Genuity Digital Assets Symposium. Source
U.S Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) has introduced a bill that would establish government-backed insurance for stablecoins, according to a report by Politico. Source
Crypto exchange Okcoin now supports the Stellar USD Coin (USDC) on-ramp after inking a partnership deal with Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), the non-profit organization behind Stellar (XLM). The SDF says that USDC on Stellar enables fast and cheap cross-border financial transactions on the decentralized network focused on cross-currency payments. “This integration marks a step in an ongoing effort to expand access to a faster and cheaper USDC. USDC on Stellar allows for near-zero transaction costs and provides incredibly fast settlement, taking about 5 seconds to finalize a transaction. A growing…
Cryptocurrency exchanges now have more stablecoins on their books than ever before in a fresh sign investors are waiting to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins. Data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant shows that this week, exchanges’ total stablecoin reserves passed 27 billion for the first time. Exchange users herd stablecoins to accounts After reaching a previous peak in late December, stablecoin reserves tumbled at the start of 2022 as BTC/USD and altcoin markets fell in tandem to multi-month lows. In recent weeks, however, the trend has reversed, with exchange users…
“This first-of-its-kind partnership between a DAO and a sports franchise opens a new world of opportunities for bringing crypto and DeFi to the masses,” Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, said in a statement. “By approving this sponsorship deal, the community has a new way to engage and educate the public, including the policy makers doing important work in Washington, D.C., about decentralized money and the burgeoning technology that underlies it.” Source
As the market capitalization of the stablecoin tether nears $80 billion, with its current $77.9 billion valuation, data from onchain researchers at Santiment indicates that tether addresses valued at $1 million own more than 80% of the entire supply. Tether’s Whales Command More Than 80% of the Supply The U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin has grown exponentially during the last few years and according to today’s metrics there’s 77.9 billion tether (USDT) in circulation today. Tether is the most dominant stablecoin out of all the stablecoins in existence in terms of market…
The House of Representatives will discuss stablecoins and how to regulate them today. Plus, crypto provisions in the House’s America COMPETES Act and contextualizing some recent IRS news. Source
Polygon’s native stablecoin protocol QiDAO faced an exploit on its Superfluid vesting contract leading to a 65% drop in the price of the governance token QI. QI price fell from $1.24 to $0.18. QiDAO took to Twitter on Tuesday to acknowledge the exploit on the Superfluid vesting contract but assured that users’ funds are safe and no funds from QiDAO have been affected. Superfluid also confirmed the exploit on QiDAO and said they are investigating the situation and will update accordingly. The protocol enables users to move assets on-chain in a…