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Study Uncovers Surprising Data: 90% Of Stablecoin Transactions Not Driven By Human Users

In a recent report by Bloomberg, it has been revealed that more than 90% of stablecoin transaction volumes do not originate from genuine users, according to a new metric co-developed by Visa.

Stablecoin Market Faces Data Reality

Visa and Allium Labs have created a dashboard designed to filter out transactions initiated by bots and large-scale traders to isolate those made by real individuals. Out of approximately $2.2 trillion in total transactions recorded in April, a mere $149 billion was identified as “organic payments activity” by Visa.

The data challenges the optimistic outlook of stablecoin proponents who believe these tokens can transform the $150 trillion payments industry. 

Fintech giants such as PayPal Inc. and Stripe Inc. have been exploring stablecoins, with Stripe co-founder John Collison expressing bullishness on the tokens due to “technical improvements.” 

Pranav Sood, the executive general manager for EMEA at payments platform Airwallex, commented on the findings: “It says that stablecoins are still in a very nascent moment in their evolution as a payment instrument.” 

Sood emphasized the need to focus on increasing existing payment infrastructure in the short and mid-term while acknowledging the long-term potential of stablecoins.

Accurately tracking crypto activity’s “real” value using blockchain data has always been challenging. Glassnode, a data provider, estimates that the record $3 trillion assigned to digital tokens at the bull market’s peak in 2021 was closer to $875 billion.

Analysts Predict Massive Surge Ahead

According to Bloomberg, the nature of stablecoin transactions often leads to double-counting, depending on the platform users employ for fund transfers. For example, converting $100 of Circle’s USDC stablecoin to PayPal’s PYUSD on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap would result in $200 of total stablecoin volume being recorded on-chain.

Visa, which processed over $12 trillion the previous year, could suffer if stablecoins gain widespread acceptance as payment. 

Interestingly, despite this troubling data, analysts at Bernstein predicted that the total value of all stablecoins in circulation could reach $2.8 trillion by 2028, nearly 18 times their current combined circulation.

While PayPal and Stripe have made strides in adopting stablecoins, Airwallex has observed limited demand for stablecoin-based payment solutions among its customers, primarily due to concerns about “user-friendliness.” 

Sood emphasized the significant barrier of overcoming entrenched payment methods, citing the continued use of checks for 40% to 60% of business payments in the United States.

The Bloomberg report sheds light on the dominance of non-genuine user activity in stablecoin transactions. The study underscores the importance of improving existing payment infrastructure and addressing user-friendly concerns to unlock the long-term potential of stablecoins.

Stablecoin

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Stablecoin Giant Tether Strikes Gold: Achieves Record Net Profit Of $4.5 Billion In Q1

Stablecoin issuer Tether, a prominent player in the cryptocurrency market behind the widely used USDT stablecoin, has released its audit statement for the first quarter of 2024, accompanied by a report conducted by independent accounting firm BDO. 

The report, which provides additional financial information beyond the reserves backing Tether’s fiat-denominated stablecoins, shows the company’s profit for the first quarter of the year, which saw an increased influx of capital into the market. 

Tether Q1 2024 Financials Soar

Digging into the numbers, the first quarter of 2024 proved highly profitable for Tether, with a net profit of $4.52 billion. 

The main contributors, the entities responsible for issuing stablecoins and managing reserves, reportedly generated approximately $1 billion of this profit from net operating gains, primarily from US Treasury holdings. The remaining profits were attributable to mark-to-market gains on Bitcoin (BTC) and gold positions.

The report also highlighted Tether’s success in increasing its direct and indirect holdings of US Treasuries to over $90 billion. This includes indirect exposure through overnight reverse repurchase agreements collateralized by US Treasuries and investments in US Treasuries through money market funds.

Tether

In a sign of significant growth, Tether also disclosed its net equity for the first time, revealing a figure of $11.37 billion as of March 31, 2024. This is an increase from the $7.01 billion equity reported as of December 31, 2023. 

The report also highlighted a $1 billion increase in excess reserves, which support the company’s stablecoin offerings, bringing the total to nearly $6.3 billion.

CEO Emphasizes Transparency And Stability

The BDO confirmation reiterated that Tether-issued tokens are 90% backed by cash and cash equivalents, underscoring the company’s stance on maintaining liquidity within the stablecoin ecosystem. Furthermore, the report revealed that over $12.5 billion worth of USDT was issued in the first quarter alone.

Tether Group’s strategic investments, which exceed $5 billion as of the report date, span various sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI) and data, renewable energy, person-to-person (P2P) communication, and Bitcoin Mining. 

In response to the latest report, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, expressed the company’s commitment to transparency, stability, liquidity, and responsible risk management. 

Ardoino highlighted Tether’s record-breaking profit benchmark of $4.52 billion and the company’s efforts to increase transparency and trust within the cryptocurrency industry. Ardoino further claimed:

In reporting not just the composition of our reserves, but now the Group’s net equity of $11.37 billion, Tether is again raising the bar in the cryptocurrency industry in the realms of transparency and trust. 

Tether

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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DeFi And Web3 Gaming Dominate Q1: Record Transactions Leave Stablecoins In The Dust, Report

In a recent report published by QuickNode, the first quarter of 2024 showed the dominance of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the notable growth of Web3 gaming in the crypto industry, which outperformed the stablecoin sector in key metrics, indicating investor preference and market sentiment during this period. 

Hopes For Second ‘DeFi Summer’ 

Per the report, DeFi experienced a significant resurgence in Q1’24, fueled by a surge in developer and user activity, particularly on chains like Solana (SOL) and Base. 

This resurgence has sparked growing hopes of a second ‘DeFi Summer,’ as DeFi projects embrace new concepts such as staking, liquid staking, restaking, and liquid restaking, which have been catalysts for its growth. Notably, staking now represents a substantial portion of DeFi’s Total Value Locked (TVL).

While stablecoins remain the top spot for address activity, DeFi surpassed stablecoins in an essential metric: transaction counts. 

DeFi

DeFi emerged as the leader in transactions for Q1’24, averaging nearly 7 million daily transactions. Furthermore, DeFi led in fees spent, gas usage, and the overall number of projects despite comprising only approximately 4% of the total crypto market cap.

The TVL for yield-generating protocols within DeFi witnessed steady growth, climbing from $26.5 billion in Q3’23 to $59.7 billion in Q1’24. According to QuickNode, this rally signifies a return of confidence and liquidity to the DeFi markets as investors seek opportunities for yield generation.

Players Take Control With Web3 Gaming

In parallel, Web3-based gaming has emerged as a significant departure from conventional gaming platforms. By leveraging cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Web3 gaming offers players new and decentralized gaming. 

Players now have the opportunity to actively participate in games and earn rewards, shifting control away from centralized entities within the gaming ecosystem.

The report highlights the growth of Web3 gaming, surpassing stablecoins in transaction volume and achieving the highest year-over-year (YoY) active address growth across all categories, with a 155% increase in active addresses during Q1 ’24. 

This surge in player engagement and participation is evident through the exponential growth of transactions within Web3 gaming, which experienced a staggering 370% YoY increase.

The Appeal Of Stablecoins

Although stablecoins continue to lead in daily active users, representing over 41% of all Web3 user activity, other categories have shown higher quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) activity growth, indicating potential catch-up. 

Tether’s USDT remains the dominant stablecoin, controlling approximately 75% of the market cap. Notably, Circle’s USDC has taken the lead in volume and average transaction size, partly due to Coinbase’s efforts to integrate USDC on its platform and promote its use on its Layer 2 network, Base.

DeFi

In addition, the report notes that stablecoins have proven attractive to both new and experienced users, offering stability and value predictability, especially during periods of market uncertainty.

QuickNode attributes the surge in stablecoin user activity in Q1’24 to several factors, including the approval and listing of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, the anticipation of Bitcoin’s next Halving event, the devaluation of fiat currencies, the popularity of low-volatility assets, and the strength of the USD, to which over 90% of stablecoin transactions are anchored.

DeFi

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Solana Unveils Token Extensions As SOL Bounces Back, Surging 5%

The Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to decentralization, adoption, and security on the Solana network, has launched token extensions.  

Solana Token Extensions Gains Traction

According to a January 24 announcement, token extensions provide developers, enterprises, financial institutions, and Solana-native development teams with a comprehensive suite of turnkey solutions for advanced token functionality. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana and CEO of Solana Labs, commented on the launch, stating: 

Token extensions build on the characteristics that make Solana the ideal destination for developers. Solana is the first network to offer this level of integrated developer and user experience in a single token program. We’re already seeing the potential to build using token extensions via deployments from some of the most recognizable names in crypto.

Industry giants Paxos and GMO-Z.com Trust Company Inc. (GMO Trust) are leading the way in adopting token extensions. As announced by the Solana Foundation, these companies are “leveraging the benefits” of token extensions to issue stablecoins on the Solana blockchain. 

As previously reported, Paxos, a regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, expanded its stablecoin issuance to the network in December. Similarly, GMO Trust announced the launch of the first regulated Japanese yen stablecoin and their own US dollar stablecoin on the Solana network. 

New Standards For Blockchain Compliance? 

Sheraz Shere, Head of Payments at the Solana Foundation, emphasized the appeal of the Solana network for enterprise-grade companies entering the web3 space. Shere stated: 

Companies like Visa, Worldpay, Stripe, Google, and Shopify have already seen the performance advantages inherent to the Solana network and have launched solutions and applications that are only possible on Solana. With token extensions, we are expanding what is possible for enterprise adoption of blockchain by natively enabling features that matter to large regulated enterprises.

Token extensions, designed to cater to builders across diverse industries such as stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), and payments, offer a range of interesting features:

  • Transfer Hooks: Enables token issuers to exert control over token interactions, empowering developers to create intricate and flexible token mechanisms.
  • Transfer Fees: Provides the ability to charge fees for each token transfer, offering sustainable revenue models for different types of tokens built using token extensions.
  • Confidential Transfers: Utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt the transfer amount while publicly sharing the source, destination, and token type. This ensures compliance while preserving privacy.
  • Permanent Delegate Authority: Grants token issuers absolute authority over their tokens, particularly for those requiring revocation ability, such as licenses or credentials.
  • Non-transferability: Restricts token transfers to the issuer only, making it ideal for unique user identification and credentialing purposes.

Ultimately, with the launch of token extensions, Solana aims to position itself as a force in blockchain development, offering builders the tools to create new applications across various industries. 

Solana

The SOL token experienced a sharp drop of over 28% in the past 30 days, leading to a decline to the $79 level. However, the token has recovered in the past 24 hours with a 5% bounce, leading to a current trading price of $87.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Stablecoin Takeover? Record Tether 71% Dominance Raises Questions About Crypto Future

Tether, the issuer of the ubiquitous USDT stablecoin, cemented its dominance in 2023, ballooning its market share to a staggering 71%. This explosive growth, however, comes with a chilling undercurrent: a United Nations report linking USDT to a surge in cybercrime and money laundering in Southeast Asia.

Glassnode data paints a stark picture of Tether’s ascent. Its market capitalization reached a record $95 billion in January 2024, fueled by a 40% increase in USDT supply over the past year. Meanwhile, competitors like Circle’s USDC saw their market share shrink, with USDT now commanding over 7 times the circulation of its nearest rival.

Tether Market Dominance Soars 

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s new CEO, has prioritized cooperation with U.S. law enforcement. The company boasts of freezing wallets linked to sanctions lists and recovering over $435 million in illicit funds.

However, the UN report casts a shadow on these efforts, detailing how USDT facilitates “sextortion,” “pig butchering” scams, and underground banking across Asia.

While Tether has proactively banned over 1,260 addresses linked to criminal activity, the sheer volume of illicit transactions raises concerns about the effectiveness of these measures.

Critics point to Tether’s opaque reserve backing as a breeding ground for misuse, calling for greater transparency to combat money laundering.

Tether’s Reign At Risk: Regulatory Challenges

The stablecoin market, once touted as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world, now faces a reckoning. Tether’s dominance is undeniable, but its association with criminal activity threatens to erode trust and trigger stricter regulations.

Meanwhile, Circle’s recent IPO filing hints at a potential shift in the landscape. With regulatory scrutiny intensifying, Tether’s future hinges on its ability to address concerns about transparency and combat illicit activity.

Can it clean up its act and maintain its crown, or will the tide turn towards its more transparent rivals? Only time will tell if Tether’s reign as the king of stablecoins will weather the storm of controversy.

With its historic 71% market share, Tether’s reign over the stablecoin realm is undeniable. Yet, the shadow of illicit activity threatens to eclipse its success.

As regulators sharpen their focus and competitors like Circle step into the ring, the question looms: will Tether clean house and retain its crown, or will this be the tipping point for a stablecoin revolution, reshaping the future of crypto itself?

Only time will tell if Tether’s dominance signals a bright new era for digital currencies or serves as a cautionary tale, paving the way for a more transparent and accountable crypto landscape. The gloves are off, and the fight for the future of stablecoins is just beginning.

Featured image from Shutterstock

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Cardano Climbs TVL Ranks: 198% Yearly Surge Puts Network Among Top 15

Cardano (ADA), a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Layer-1 (L1) smart contract network launched in 2017, experienced a largely quiet Q3 2023 in the overall crypto market. However, the network faced challenges with a decline in ADA’s price and revenue. 

Despite these setbacks, Cardano showcased growth in its treasury balance, stablecoin market cap, and Total Value Locked (TVL) ranking. Furthermore, the network’s infrastructure and connections to other ecosystems have paved the way for future decentralized finance (DeFi) sector developments.

Cardano Sees Decrease In Daily Active Addresses And Transactions

According to a recent report by Messari, ADA’s price declined for the second consecutive quarter, down 9.5% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to $0.25, in line with the overall crypto market’s 9.2% QoQ fall. 

The revenue generated from transaction fees also decreased by 29.9% QoQ, reflecting a decline in user urgency to transact during this period.

Cardano’s Treasury balance grew by 7.2% QoQ to 1.39 billion ADA. Although the treasury’s value in USD terms decreased by 3.0% QoQ due to ADA price depreciation, it demonstrated steady growth in ADA holdings. 

Currently, 20% of transaction fees contribute to the treasury, providing a potential funding source for future projects.

Cardano

Moreover, Cardano experienced a decline in daily active addresses for the third consecutive quarter, down 28.9% QoQ to 41,100. Average daily transactions also decreased by 12.2% QoQ. 

However, the ratio of transactions to active addresses indicated that while the number of active users decreased, those present were power users, suggesting high engagement within the network.

Average daily dapp transactions decreased by 14.7% QoQ, but overall, they increased by 40.0% YTD. Non-fungible token (NFT) transaction activity declined for the third consecutive quarter, while NFT trading volume increased, highlighting the growing value of Cardano NFTs.

Cardano’s TVL Demonstrates Stability Despite Market Challenges

Cardano’s TVL remained steady, declining only 0.1% QoQ. However, its TVL ranking among all networks improved from 21st to 15th during Q3, indicating relative growth compared to other ecosystems. 

Cardano

The launch of two new stablecoins, iUSD and DJED, significantly contributed to the overall TVL growth, as the stablecoin market cap increased by 16.3% QoQ.

Per the report, Cardano also made progress in interoperability and core infrastructure during Q3. Partnerships with networks like Wanchain and developments in state channels, on-chain governance, and sidechains demonstrate the network’s commitment to expanding its capabilities. 

Overall, Cardano’s Q3 2023 reflects a period of challenges and growth for the network. Despite declining ADA’s price and revenue, the treasury balance, stablecoin market cap, and TVL ranking showcased positive trends. 

The network’s infrastructure developments and connections to other ecosystems position it favorably for future advancements in the DeFi sector. As Cardano continues to address challenges and foster innovation, it remains a key player in the blockchain landscape.

ADA Price Soars By 17% In 30 Days

Despite the sideways movement and declines in various indicators of Cardano’s overall ecosystem, ADA has experienced a significant surge of 17% in the past 30 days. 

Currently, ADA is trading at $0.2983, continuing its upward trend recovery over the past weeks following a sharp decline since July 13 and a subsequent consolidation phase. 

Cardano

This consolidation phase led to a breakout of the previous four-month trend, which halted on October 19, triggering the recent surge in the token’s price. However, looking at the one-year timeframe, ADA’s value has seen a decline of 26%.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Crypto Investor Buying Power Just Reached A 6-Month High, What This Means

For the crypto market to fully enter another epic bull run, investors must be willing to purchase digital assets in large quantities. After a long stretch of abysmal performance, it looks like crypto investors are finally starting to believe in the market as they begin to pool their buying power to enter back into the market.

Crypto Buying Power At 6-Month Highs

An interesting development reported by the on-chain data tracker Santiment is the accumulation of Tether’s USDT stablecoin by crypto investors. As Santiment points out, the total amount of USDT being held on exchanges saw a notable uptick recently.

The figure which takes into account the total USDT held across the top exchanges went from only 17.6% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply to a whopping 24.7%. This 7.1% jump represents the growing interest of investors to get back into the market which could be bullish for prices.

As always, the large whales led the charge in this accumulation trend. The top 10 largest wallets saw their combined holdings rise from $7.23 billion to more than $9.42 billion in the same timeframe.

Crypto buying power stable coins

Now, when investors start upping their stablecoin holdings, it signals a readiness to begin buying digital assets once more and also shows the current buying power. As the amount of USDT held on exchanges has crossed over to a 6-month high, it could point toward the start of the largest rally seen in the market in 2023.

The accumulation being spread across large and small wallets alike shows that this is not a localized sentiment. Rather, most investors are seeing genuine chances for an upside and are looking to harness some of those gains for themselves.

Crypto total market cap chart from Tradingview.com (Stablecoins USDT)

What To Expect

After accumulating a large tranche of stablecoins as illustrated in the Santiment report, crypto investors would often wait for a good time to deploy it. This is usually when the market experiences a notable crash, plunging the entire space into the red.

At this point, investors would be looking to get back into coins at a time when they look to be on discount. This is often when the market forms support and then prices begin to surge not too long afterward.

Mainly, these stablecoins will be deployed into the largest digital assets first such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Then once there are enough profits, investors will usually rotate into smaller cap coins, which is why altcoins tend to delay a bit in following Bitcoin’s recovery.

Such a scenario will likely see the price of Bitcoin rally toward $29,000 and then bring the crypto market cap above $1.1 trillion once more.

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PayPal’s PYUSD Report Provides Valuable Insight Into The Stablecoin’s Performance So Far

A new report has shown that the adoption of PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin has seen less than favorable adoption rates since its inception. The crypto community remains skeptical about employing the new stablecoin for daily crypto payments and has opted for top competitor stablecoins like USDT and USDC. 

PYUSD Experiences Sluggish Adoption Rate

Global payments giant PayPal released its transparency report for its stablecoin, PYUSD, and the analysis of the report reveals that the PYUSD stablecoin may not be seeing as much adoption as PayPal and PYUSD stablecoin issuer, Paxos hoped for. 

Paypal launched the US dollar-backed stablecoin on August 7 which was designed to increase stablecoin offerings and facilitate the adoption of crypto payments to crypto users as well as consumers and merchants actively utilizing PayPal’s financial platform globally.

However, despite coming from one of the largest players in the payments space, the PYUSD stablecoin remains a relatively small player in the cryptocurrency market, especially when compared to industry heavyweights like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).

A Kaiko analyst, Desislava Aubert stated to Decrypt that despite being listed on prominent exchange platforms like Coinbase and Huobi Global, the PYUSD stablecoin’s adoption rate has been progressing slowly, and its daily trade volumes have been fairly low. 

“PYUSD was listed on some centralized exchanges in late August, notably Coinbase and Kraken, but its daily trading volume has been volatile and significantly lower than other stablecoins. Overall, this points to sluggish demand,” Aubert stated. 

The PayPal USD stablecoin was issued by Paxos Trust Company, a technology company specializing in blockchain in August. Paxos has reported that it holds $45.3 million in assets supporting the PYUSD stablecoin. 

The stablecoin is also reportedly backed with over $1.5 million in cash deposits. The majority of the coin’s reserves, approximately $43.8 million have been collateralized with the US Treasuries as reverse purchase agreements. 

Currently, PYUSD has a market capitalization of $44 million, suggesting that the stablecoin’s adoption rate has been subpar due to its failure to catch and retain the attention of the crypto community. 

Crypto Investors Opt For Top Stablecoins

The decline in acceptance and adoption of the PYUSD may be attributed to the unfamiliarity of the cryptocurrency as a new stablecoin. The stablecoin market is also heavily saturated with well-established cryptocurrencies like USDT, USDC, and others. 

Given this, a large number of crypto investors are presently opting for these top stablecoins to facilitate their cryptocurrency transactions. This is further propelled by the fact that these stablecoins have created a considerable reputation for themselves over the years due to their reliability and sustainability.

Presently, USDT has a market capitalization of over $83 billion and USDC has a market cap of $26 billion. At the time of writing, USDT stablecoin’s 24-hour trading volume is over $22 billion as compared to PYUSD stablecoin’s 24-hour trading volume of only $3.2 million. 

Despite PYUSD’s sluggish adoption rate, PayPal remains committed to its cryptocurrency ventures. The payment giant has expanded into different regions globally using its brand name and reliable reputation as an international financial service provider to facilitate crypto adoption and awareness among users in different countries.

PayPal PYUSD price chart from Tradingview.com (Stablecoin)

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Bye Bye Birdie: Binance Begins Process Of Axing BUSD Stablecoin

Binance crypto exchange announced in late August that it is moving to end support for its beloved BUSD stablecoin. This move comes amid the stablecoin’s run-in with regulators, leading to a halt in its production. And now, the exchange has started moving to begin the end of support for the stablecoin.

Binance Starts Burning Tokens

Binance took to its official X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday, September 14, to announce that it would begin burning a number of Binance-pegged tokens. Among the five tokens listed to be burned, four were BUSD tokens across different blockchains.

According to the announcement, the Binance-pegged tokens would be burned on the listed blockchains, and then the exchange would release the equivalent amount of tokens that were initially used as collateral on their native networks.

The BUSD tokens listed across four networks include BUSD on the Polygon (MATIC) network, BUSD on the Tron (TRX) network, BUSD on BSC, and BUSD (BNB). In addition to these, the exchange also revealed that the TUSDOLD on BSC would be burned as well, making it the only token on this list that is not BUSD.

The collateral in this case will be the equivalent of the Binance-pegged tokens that are burned. So if 1,000 BUSD on the MATIC network is burned, then the equivalent on the native blockchain will be released by the exchange.

Fire In The BUSD Camp

The BUSD stablecoin first came under fire in early 2023 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells Notice to issuer Paxos alleging that the stablecoin was an unregistered security. The regulator, through this, made its intention to pursue legal action known.

Following the move by the SEC, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) asked the issuer to stop printing new tokens. The NYDFS’s concern mainly bordered on Paxos’ relationship with Binance, and eventually, the BUSD issuer decided to cut ties with the crypto exchange.

Since the initial move by regulators, the stablecoin has suffered in terms of usage and market cap. The stablecoin which was once a top 10 crypto by market cap has since seen its market cap decline to $2.5 billion, making it the 26-largest cryptocurrency as of the time of this writing.

Binance has also announced plans to stop offering support for the stablecoin completely by 2024. Paxos also revealed that it will cease all BUSD redemptions in February 2024, and Binance’s complete withdrawal is expected to come shortly after this.

Nevertheless, the stablecoin continues to maintain its dollar peg quite well. It is still trading at a 1:1 parity with the United States dollar and has rarely dipped below $1 amid the regulatory storm.

Binance BUSD market cap chart from Tradingview.com

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Report Reveals The Stablecoins That Have Suffered The Most De-Peg Events

Amidst the constant price swings and uncertainties that plague the crypto market, stablecoins have become an invaluable asset for investors and traders. However, analysts have revealed several stablecoins that have been struggling to maintain the esteemed stability reserved for these types of assets.

Stablecoins Under Pressure

The inherent volatility of the crypto market and the persistent price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies are a constant experience in the crypto industry. Due to this, stablecoins like USDT, USDC, and DAI have long been revered as a reliable bridge between the volatility and instability of cryptocurrencies. 

However, a recent report has raised concerns about the stability of some of the most popular stablecoins. The report saw analysts from S&P Global explore the top five stablecoins including Tether (USDT), Dai (DAI) Binance USD (BUSD), USD Coin (USDC), and Paxos (USDP).  

The research paper from Dr. Cristina Polizy, Anoop Garg, and Miguel de la Mata revealed that USDC and DAI have failed to maintain their dollar peg multiple times in the last two years, as compared to other stablecoins like USDT and BUSD. 

The analysis revealed that the de-pegging events for USDC and DAI have taken place more often than those of USDT and BUSD. Circle’s USDC was named as the stablecoin with the most prolonged de-pegging event, dropping to $0.90 for 23 minutes while DAI de-pegged for 20 minutes. 

Stablecoins

In contrast, USDT dropped below the one-dollar peg for just one minute, while BUSD has not experienced any de-pegging event since June 2021 and June 2023. 

Possible Instigations For Stablecoin De-pegging Events

March 2023 saw the fall of three prominent banks in the United States, including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank, and Signature Bank. Due to the affiliations of these banks with the crypto industry, their collapse had a significant impact on the prices of digital assets in the space.

Circle’s USDC experienced a decline of 13% below the one-dollar mark after reports revealed that a significant portion of Circle’s cash reserves, adding up to $3.3 billion, were kept in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). However, the stablecoin has since recovered and maintained its peg following an announcement that confirmed that the Federal Reserve would endorse the banks’ creditors. 

Subsequently, Michael Barr, a high-ranking official at the United States Federal Reserve raised concerns about the adoption rate of unregulated stablecoins like USDT and USDC, which are currently the top stablecoins by market capitalization. 

As the broader crypto market watches closely for more discrepancies in the stablecoin dollar peg, financial firms like PayPal, have launched their own stablecoins. 

Prominent platforms like Binance, and Huobi are already incorporating the new PYUSD into their crypto portfolio. In addition, monetary institutions like Visa are taking advantage of stablecoins like USDC to propel expansion into new markets.

USDC Stablecoins market cap chart from Tradingview.com

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PayPal’s PYUSD Fails To Capture Interest: 90% Of Supply Remains In Paxos’ Wallet

Paypal’s Ethereum-based stablecoin PYUSD has failed to capture crypto investors’ interest. According to data from Nansen, 90% of the stablecoin’s total supply still remains with its issuer Paxos’ wallet.

Paypal’s PYUSD Adoption Setback

The payment giant Paypal’s recently launched stablecoin PYUSD continues to struggle with adoption and has failed to gain traction since its official launch on August 7, 2023.

Despite PayPal having over 350 million users worldwide, on-chain data from Nansen has shown that only a small percentage of its user base is currently using and holding the PYUSD in self-custody wallets.

“On the surface there’s a lack of demand from crypto users for PYUSD when other alternatives exist,” said Nansen in a report.

However, it is believed that lack of enthusiasm might involve the stablecoin’s lack of utility and not being able to earn interest on the stablecoin, as highlighted by an X (formerly Twitter) user in a post on August 26, 2023.

The stablecoin’s holdings on crypto exchange wallets are also low, accounting for just about 7% of the stablecoin’s total supply. This percentage takes into account the balances on centralized exchanges such as Kraken, Crypto.com, and Gate.io.

Despite the high expectations in the crypto industry following the release of the stablecoin that it would actually promote wider adoption and introduce cryptocurrencies to the masses for the first time, the stablecoin has failed to live up to expectations and smart money investors seem perfectly comfortable to circumvent the stablecoin. 

The largest holder of the stablecoin holds less than $10,000 worth of PYUSD after the holder sold about 3 meme coins to purchase the stablecoin. Excluding contracts or exchanges, not more than 10 holders have a balance surpassing $1,000.

According to Coinmarketcap, PYUSD has a total supply of 43 million PYUSD tokens and pools in decentralized exchanges like Uniswap’s PYUSD/USDC and PYUSD/wETH accounts to only 50,000 PYUSD tokens respectively.

The PYUSD tokens have been criticized for being overly centralized, as the majority of its total supply turns out to be stored on centralized exchanges, resulting in difficulty in growing its circulation.

Despite such a high total supply, the collective total number of the stablecoin’s holders according to Etherscan is merely 324 at the time of this writing.

PayPal's PYUSD price chart from Tradingview.com (PayPal stablecoin)

Expectations On Ethereum For The Stablecoin

According to JP Morgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, following the first week of Paypal’s stablecoin launch, Ethereum enjoyed no benefit from PYUSD when looking at things such as increased network activity, increased Total Value Locked (TVL), and enhancing Ethereum’s network utility as a stablecoin/DeFi platform.

Crypto experts and enthusiasts have also criticized PayPal for choosing Ethereum for its stablecoin due to the blockchain’s high transaction fees.

Co-founder of Sei Network Jayendra Jog said, “The gas fees of using PYUSD will be ridiculous, which will disincentivize its usage.”

He further added, “To help make the user experience better, PayPal will either need to subsidize transaction costs or will need to help support PYUSD on other networks with cheaper gas fees.”