Crypto Companies Announce New Stablecoin Products and Partnerships
By John Robertson
In recent press releases, U.S. crypto companies Paxos and Ripple announced new stablecoin products and partnerships. Paxos announced the launch of a new stablecoin payment platform that supports instant conversions between USD and PYUSD, USDP, and USDC. According to the press release, the platform is already being utilized by a major U.S. fintech and payments company.
Ripple's press release announced that its stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) will be available globally on several major exchanges, including Uphold, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA and Bullish. The press release also announced the advisory board for RLUSD.
In more stablecoin news, AED Stablecoin announced that it has obtained in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE to launch and issue AE Coin, the first stablecoin backed by United Arab Emirates Dirham. Meanwhile, Tether released the first blog in its new "Tether Insights" series. The inaugural post noted that USDT has seen significant adoption, with 330 million on-chain wallets and accounts having received USDT and an average user increase of 9 percent in the past four quarters (starting Q4 2023).
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Paxos Launches New Stablecoin Payments Platform
- Ripple Announces Ripple USD (RLUSD) Exchange Partners for Global Distribution
- AED Stablecoin secures UAE Central Bank approval to launch AE Coin
- How Many USDT Users Are There?
Crypto Market Reports Published, IOSCO Addresses Crypto Investor Education
Three major U.S. digital asset firms recently published reports analyzing the current state of the crypto market. The first report, by Galaxy Asset Management, is titled The Digital Asset Investable Universe and "offers investors an overview of the digital asset market, its key segments and entry points, and the unique opportunities available." Among other topics, the report covers market trends, adoption drivers, reasons and barriers to investing, asset allocation strategies, and investment verticals.
The second report, by a16crypto, is titled State of Crypto 2024 and discusses the following key takeaways: (1) crypto activity and usage hit all-time highs in 2024; (2) crypto has become a key political issue ahead of the U.S. election; (3) stablecoins have found product-market fit; (4) infrastructure improvements have increased capacity and drastically reduced transaction costs; (5) DeFi remains popular — and it's growing; (6) crypto could solve some of AI's most pressing challenges; and (7) more scalable infrastructure has unlocked new on-chain applications.
The third report, by Coinbase and Glassnode, is titled Guide to 2024 Q4 Crypto Markets and focuses on providing investors "with a deeper understanding of crypto markets by providing a comprehensive view of the metrics and trends that matter the most to institutional investors." The report provides data and charts reflecting information current through September 2024 and includes detailed analyses of the bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) markets.
The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published its final report on Investor Education on Crypto-Assets. Among other things, the report presents updated findings based on 2023 survey responses and discussions regarding the behavior and experiences of retail investors; updates the risks addressed and makes suggestions for additional investor education measures; describes some changes in the regulatory landscape, including investor protection measures; and includes examples of educational materials.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- The Digital Asset Investable Universe
- State of Crypto Report 2024: New data on swing states, stablecoins, AI, builder energy, and more
- Coinbase & Glassnode Q4 Guide to Crypto Markets
- IOSCO: Investor Education on Crypto-Assets
- IOSCO Announces Final Report on Investor Education on Crypto-Assets
Ethereum Technical Papers Published, New Wrapped BTC and L2s Launch
Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of the Ethereum Network, recently published a two-part series of technical papers titled Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol. The first paper addresses "the Merge" and focuses on technical features needed to improve proof of stake on the Ethereum network – such as stability, performance and accessibility to smaller validators – and includes potential strategies to achieve these goals. The second paper addresses "the Scourge" and focuses on economic changes to address centralization risks, including preserving decentralization and robustness of Ethereum L1 and promoting interoperability between Ethereum L2s.
Kraken, a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, recently announced the launch of Kraken Bitcoin (kBTC), "a fully backed, cross-network-compatible ERC-20 representation of Bitcoin custodied by Kraken." According to a blog post by the company, "Each kBTC token is fully backed 1:1 by an equivalent amount of Bitcoin and held securely in Kraken's custody." The blog post provides links to where the Bitcoin reserves backing the kBTC can be verified on-chain. According to the blog post, "kBTC can be used in decentralized applications (dApps) through interoperability with ... Ethereum and OP Mainnet."
The company that developed the Uniswap decentralized exchange recently announced the launch of Unichain, "a fast, decentralized Superchain L2 that's built to be the home for DeFi and liquidity across chains." According to a blog post, "Unichain is designed to leverage and accelerate Ethereum's scaling roadmap" and aims to deliver faster and cheaper transactions as well as enhanced interoperability across Ethereum L2 networks.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Possible futures of the Ethereum protocol, part 1: The Merge
- Possible futures for the Ethereum protocol, part 2: The Surge
- Introducing Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC): Unleashing Bitcoin's potential across networks
- Unichain – an Ethereum L2 designed for DeFi
- Uniswap launches its own layer-2, Unichain
Survey Addresses How Crypto Policies May Influence Voters in 2024 Elections
A recent report by a major U.S. crypto advocacy organization provided the results of a national survey "revealing how crypto policies could influence voter behavior in the upcoming 2024 elections." The report provides details and analysis on the following key findings from the survey: (1) 1 in 7 likely voters are in the "Crypto Voting Bloc"; (2) a pro-crypto stance would likely have a net positive effect on voting; (3) about 40 percent of Black voters say crypto is very important in determining who they vote for in 2024; (4) Trump and Harris voters tend to think their own candidate is more supportive of crypto than the opposing candidate; (5) supporting the crypto industry should be at least a medium-level priority for the president and Congress; (6) Americans say government officials should focus on crypto policies that reduce fraud and scams; (7) the government should prioritize designing crypto policies that encourage growth and also protect consumer freedoms; (8) those who are most familiar with crypto have the most positive sentiment; and (9) Americans who have more familiarity with crypto tend to have much stronger trust in the government.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
Hacker of SEC X Account Arrested, New Data on Crypto Enforcement Published
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently published a press release announcing the arrest of an Alabama man in connection with "a January 2024 unauthorized takeover of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) X account, formerly known as Twitter, in which hackers posted a fake message from the SEC Chair that caused the value of bitcoin (BTC) to spike by $1,000." According to the press release, the defendant conspired with others in a SIM swap scheme "to take unauthorized control of the @SECGov X account ... and transmitted a fake post in the name of the SEC Chair, falsely announcing, in part, 'Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.'" The hack allegedly caused the price of Bitcoin to rise by $1,000 and then fall by $2,000.
In other news, according to recent reports, crypto companies' settlements with regulators total over $32 billion to date. So far, 2024 has seen eight of the top 25 settlements, including the $12.7 billion settlement with FTX and Alameda, the $4.5 billion settlement with Terraform Labs, and the $2 billion settlement with a major digital asset company. In 2023 there were three settlements over $1 billion (Celsius at $4.7 billion, a foreign-based crypto exchange at $4.3 billion and another foreign-based exchange at $1.65 billion), and in 2020 there was one over $1 billion (Telegram at $1.24 billion). A recent article points to the FTX collapse in 2022 as the catalyst for increased regulator scrutiny.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- FBI Arrests Alabama Man in the January 2024 SEC X Hack that Spiked the Value of Bitcoin
- Crypto Companies Rack Up $32B in US Regulator Settlements
DeFi Hacked for $58M, Monero Report Published, Crypto Websites Blacklisted
According to recent reports, Radiant Capital, a decentralized finance (DeFi) cross-chain lending protocol, has lost approximately $58 million in digital assets in a hack. The hackers reportedly obtained three of the 11 private keys that control the Radiant Capital protocol and exploited smart contracts on the BNB Chain and Arbitrum networks.
In other news, blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs recently published an analysis of the Monero cryptocurrency and the unique challenges of its advanced privacy features, which make it difficult to trace transactions and identify users. Among other things, the article provides a summary of a recently published paper by TRM's researchers addressing the traceability of Monero. The article further notes that some large cryptocurrency exchanges have delisted Monero, pushing users to decentralized exchanges and instant swap services in order to bypass know-your-customer requirements.
In a final notable item, according to reports, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of France has expanded its blacklist of unauthorized cryptocurrency service providers, adding 25 new websites to the blacklist and bringing the total to 100 sites that are not registered to provide digital asset services in the country. The addition of the new blacklisted websites is reportedly part of FMA's ongoing efforts to protect investors from digital asset fraud schemes.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
- Radiant Capital Loses $50M to Second Blockchain Exploit This Year
- Radiant Capital halts lending after exploit
- The Rise of Monero: Traceability, Challenges, and Research Review
- 25 Illegal Crypto Websites Exposed by French Regulator—Investors Beware
Contributing author: John Robertson
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
