Features TheBitTimes.com

Tether Holding’s USDT market cap has declined for the first time in almost a year. This comes as reports claim the stablecoin consistently depegged versus the USD throughout August. In the first week of August, USDT had a 98% depeg severity, meaning it traded at a discount on almost every exchange. By the end of August, its market cap had contracted by 1.2% to $82.9 billion, according to CCData, an analytics platform. The Stablecoin aggregate market has shrunk for the 17th consecutive month, currently hovering around $125 billion. Factors inducing this slump include diminishing trading volumes, which is further impacted by soaring interest rates, regulatory clampdowns, and waning investor attraction. Yet, amidst this, USDT has been standing unchallenged as the most liquid stablecoin. Nonetheless, significant concerns persist regarding the stability of stablecoins, especially following Binance’s recent decision to cease support for BUSD. The stablecoin, trading un...

The Australian digital dollar was used in a trade for a U.S. dollar stablecoin using an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain. Australia has successfully made its first foreign exchange transaction using eAUD as part of a live pilot for the country’s potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). It comes amid a rising interest from countries around the world to learn about or launch central bank-issued digital currencies. In a statement, blockchain infrastructure provider Canvas said on May 17 local time, crypto fund managers DigitalX and TAF Capital traded eAUD against the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). Canvas reported the transaction was settled instantly and touted it as a success over what it called the “slow, expensive and prone to errors” traditional FX and remittance networks. The FX trade was part of a series of tests currently underway as the country explores possible use cases for a CBDC. The pilot program was launched by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in conjunction with the fin...

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino believes that USDT is becoming the “safest asset to hold in the world” amid the banking crisis. Cryptocurrency firm Tether, which issues the stablecoin USDT (USDT), expects to make a $700 million profit in the first quarter of 2023, matching the profits of the last quarter of 2022, Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino told Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week 2023. “I don’t have the final figures yet, but the profit of this quarter will probably match the last quarter of 2022,” Ardoino said, adding that in Q4 2022, Tether generated $700 million of profits. He added that Tether also has an “addition to that $950 million” at Dec. 31, 2022, noting: “So it means that our company equity will grow to $1.5 billion or $1.7 billion that are on top of the reserves that we have that are backing 100% of the assets.” Tether CTO went on to say that USDT is becoming more the “safest asset to hold in the world” because the company is different from the banks that a...