DFC

"CEMENT IS A BASKET OF MANY STABLECOINS: Stablecoin holders can deposit their stablecoins into the Cement Mixer (that’s what we’re calling the basket), to benefit from increased liquidity, greater stability and protection from risk."

Japan’s amended Fund Settlement Law and the amended Payment Services Act defines “virtual currencies,” which include cryptocurrencies, as a means of payment and exempts them from consumption tax. The latter requires cryptocurrency exchange operators to register with the FSA. However, in principle, stable coins pegged by legal currencies do not fall into the category of ‘virtual currencies’ based on the Payment Services Act. Hence, it is not necessarily appropriate to suggest that stablecoin issuers need to obtain or register before issuing the coins.” Nonetheless, generally speaking, companies need to register as the ‘Issuer of Prepaid Payment Instruments’ or the ‘Funds Transfer Service Providers’ based on Payment Services Act, when virtual currency broker dealers trade stable coins.

"The story put forth by Bloomberg cites an unbacked, independent study which claims that, if USDT were to be unbacked (i.e. supply-driven and “pushed" onto traders as opposed to “pulled” via organic demand) it could indicate manipulation of the Bitcoin price. The entire study relies on the assumption that USDT is unbacked and therefore not sufficiently driven by trader demand. This is flawed, and claims which suggest that USDT transactions aren’t driven by demand when it is consistently in the top 2 of traded cryptocurrencies in the space with regards to volume, are simply ridiculous by now. To reiterate, the accusation against Tether is based around the assumption that outstanding USDTs are unbacked - something which has been proven false time and time again."

"Frequent Bitcoin commentator and Cornell professor Emin Gün Sirer believes there is a distinct difference between a coin that is pegged to a fiat currency and a coin that is “stable.” In a recent tweet, he noted that MakerDAO should be considered “stable,” because it uses algorithmic methods of achieving a stable ratio, while USDC and Tether should be considered “pegged,” in that they use simple methods and the banking system to retain a 1:1 ratio with fiat currency."

"Tether Ltd., the controversial issuer of the tether stablecoin (USDT), which aims for parity with the U.S. dollar, announced Tuesday that it would reopen account verification for new customers and enable customers to redeem tether for fiat currency directly through its platform. “Tether is able to return to its original vision of having a wallet for creating and redeeming directly on its own platform without having to rely on a third party,” the company said in a post on its website. “This update allows the immediate withdrawal of Tether to fiat (1:1), with the ability to acquire coming soon.” Notably, withdrawals will be subject to a high minimum of $100,000 and significant fees."

"Huaren Capital had entered the Philippines’ business territory to expand its crypto mining business. But the Chinese firm has found another purpose on the sideways. The crypto giant plans to launch a digitized version of Philippino Peso called “Digital Peso” in the first half of 2019, reported Inquirer. The coin, whose per unit value would likely be pegged to 1 Peso, would be a base currency of a proposed two-way remittance corridor between China and the Philippines."

"While TrueUSD maintains an early-mover advantage, it increasingly appears that the quest to supplant tether is becoming a two-horse race between PAX and USDC, who are rapidly gaining on TUSD and have thus far left GUSD in the dust. USD Coin, unlike Paxos Standard, is backed by the biggest household name in crypto. Coinbase, along with fellow bitcoin unicorn Circle, is a co-issuer of USDC, and both are founding members of the CENTRE consortium, which governs the development of USDC and future stablecoin offerings. Consequently, USDC is listed directly on the Coinbase platform, enabling the firm’s tens of millions of users to easily convert between the token and fiat without having to open any new accounts."

"Well, fine. But here’s the problem: Tether’s fees and limits are sort of outrageous, especially compared to its much more recent competitors. Paxos Standard (PAX) has no redemption fee but a minimum of $100. The same with Circle’s USD Coin (USDC). But Tether? Well, to even consider redeeming your USDT for USD with Tether proper, you’ll need to be doing it $100,000 at a time. You’ll pay a minimum fee of 0.1% to make a deposit and acquire USDT, and there are three tiers of withdrawal fees: 0.4% at $100,000 or more, 1% at $1 million or more, and 3% at $10 million or more."

"In case you're not familiar with stable coins, you can read my article about Tether (USDT-USD) to get caught up. However, what Tether set out to accomplish may actually be achieved by USD Coin (USDC-USD), which operates in a much more transparent and trustworthy manner (even though it's still very new, being launched less than two months ago)."

TIPS is basically a central bank-owned version of XRP, which makes the Ripple offering irrelevant and is maybe a reason why the much-anticipated xRapid product saw little uptake from the large financial institutions.

Stasis, a Malta-based issuer of stablecoins, has hired accounting firm BDO Malta to conduct quarterly and annual audits of its financials, including the euro reserves backing the startup’s EURS token.

Major United States-based stablecoin project Basis will shut down operations and return most of its funds to investors, crypto news outlet The Block reports today, Dec. 12.

According to statistics published in Diar, stablecoins have seen more than 1000% increased transaction activity on-chain since September. This is not to speak to the massive volume at which they are traded internally on crypto exchanges, which numbers in the several billions per day.

"The problem the project may have faced with regulators in the U.S. market, which still remains unknown, is that there is no tangible evidence to prove that the asset’s 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar can be maintained."

"Basis, the most well-funded stablecoin startup, has confirmed that it is shutting down and returning all of its remaining funds to investors."

"Unfortunately, having to apply US securities regulation to the system had a serious negative impact on our ability to launch Basis."

"Basis is closing down. The reason? Regulators appear to have told them that “bond tokens” and “share tokens” are a bit like “bonds” and “shares” and need to be treated as such. (God knows why.)"

"The global downturn in cryptocurrency prices has likely played a big role in the devaluation of the BitUSD token. In order to effectively redeem tokens for a dollar’s worth of cryptos, the cryptos held in the BitShares contracts must hold a value that enables them to do so."

"A state-owned bank in Brazil is about to issue a crypto token designed to maintain parity with the national currency. The Brazilian National Social Development Bank will launch a pilot in January 2019 for the BNDES token, which runs on the ethereum blockchain and is backed 1-for-1 by Brazilian real. The bank has been experimenting with the stablecoin throughout 2018 and will now use it for tax-deductible contributions to cultural institutions."

As Tether grew into a multibillion-dollar engine of the cryptocurrency market, skeptics kept warning that the digital coin, whose main selling point is that it’s pegged to the dollar, wasn’t actually backed by an enormous pile of cash. Bank statements reviewed by Bloomberg News suggest those fears may be unfounded.

Facebook Inc. is working on making a cryptocurrency that will let users transfer money on its WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India, according to people familiar with the matter

"Now licensed as a state-approved financial instrument, Mobicom’s virtual currency — dubbed “Candy” — is considered a “non-cash payment instrument” whose value is pegged to Mongolia’s fiat currency, the tugrik."

"In this publication we not only provide an overview of the main stablecoin models, but we also explore the potential advantages of stablecoins and discuss how these need to be balanced against regulatory and policy goals covering matters such as consumer protection, financial services regulation, market integrity and financial crime."

"Against this backdrop comes the launch of the first Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin called SGDR (short for “Singapore dollar rate”). Created by the team behind blockchain startup Rate3, which raised US$15 million in an initial coin offering, SGDR is “a 1:1 Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin, guaranteeing users full redeemability for Singapore dollars on demand,” according to the FAQ."

"Stablecoins may qualify as “money” under Texas law, according to updated guidance from the state Department of Banking. A memo published Wednesday by Texas Banking Commissioner Charles Cooper outlines how cryptocurrencies are to be treated under local and federal regulations, in particular adding details of how stablecoins backed by sovereign, or fiat, currencies may be assessed. The guidance builds upon a previous memo released by the state in 2014, which described how cryptocurrency companies with operations in Texas should treat the nascent asset class."

"The minor inconveniences faced by WeChat’s payment system, multiplied by a billion, make clear why Facebook is interested in entering not just the payment system business but the crypto business as well. Imagine the daily flow of payments that users could make in the full Facebook/WhatsApp ecosystem. Initially focusing on a single use case like remittances is likely good business strategy, but shopping, transfers between friends, games, and native apps may be next."

"The product, dubbed Settlenet, uses Liquid as part of an arrangement allowing exchanges to issue yen-pegged stablecoins and trade against Liquid Bitcoin (L-BTC), Blockstream’s sidechain. The feature also makes use of so-called ‘atomic swaps,’ the ability to make cross-blockchain transactions without manually converting assets."