DFC

"Since February, MKR holders have agreed on three different raises of Dai’s “stability fees,” which are essentially interest rates people have to pay for borrowing Dai. First came two separate fee hikes of 0.5 percent. When those didn’t work, the community enacted an additional 2.5 percent increase. That didn’t quite stabilize Dai either, so the MakerDAO community is currently debating adding another two percent to the coin’s borrowing rate."

"I think JPM Coin is a bold attempt to gain a first mover advantage in a potentially lucrative new banking service. It shares more DNA with Bitcoin than any product announcement so far from a major financial institution, but it has some traditional bank in there too."

IBM World wire focuses on the cross-border payments market with enabled payment locations in 72 countries, 48 currencies and 44 banking endpoints. It supports Stellar Lumens and a USD based stablecoin – thanks to their work with Stronghold. The network will also support stablecoins issued by several of its consortium banks.

"The JCBA says there is a need to clarify whether security tokens, which are subject to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, fall under "Article 2 (1) Securities" or "Article 2 (2) Securities," and suggested the exclusion of security tokens from the Payment Services Act, in order to avoid duplicating regulatory requirements imposed by the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act."

Many stablecoin backers artificially inflate their market caps and trading volumes, creating misleading data on crypto-tracking sites. One dubious tactic is to give discounts to investors who agree to lock up their funds for a set timeframe, and another is encouraging wash trading.

"To provide continued transparency about USD Coin (USDC), we wanted to highlight some data about redemptions and provide some clarity about why making redemptions seamless is an essential element of USDC’s success."

Keeping one currency stable against another is easier said than done and algorithms that intuitively seem to work can hide devastating design flaws. Time will tell, but it seems unlikely that these algorithmic stablecoins will be replacing national currencies any time soon.

"The volatility in stablecoins is not reported very much and seems to be overshadowed by overall crypto volatility. However, stablecoin volatility is the more interesting news. Crypto volatility is nothing new. I’ve talked before about how the decentralized stablecoins are badly designed. This year is demonstrating these problems."

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. The MIXR provides on demand liquidity and a decentralized exchange for stablecoins. Depositing a stablecoin in the Mixer allows you to seamlessly exchange it for any other stablecoin in the Mixer. For example, a holder of TUSD can easily pay a provider that only accepts DAI. USD-pegged stablecoins (e.g. TUSD, USDT, DAI) deposited in the mix are hedged from risk, become fungible and benefit from pooled liquidity sources. Cement creates a marketplace for risk. Users are protected from the risk of failure of any of the underlying stablecoins and from diversification of their exposure. They also have the option to earn returns by absorbing this risk. These rewards are paid out from the fees collected by the Mixer.

"Dai may also be poised to become the stablecoin of choice for ETH users, for a variety of reasons. An upcoming Coinbase listing, the potential for ICOs denominated in Dai, payroll sent in Dai, and dApps like Augur using Dai, all point to the need for Dai or something similar in the future."

"Strangely, the promoters behind two new stablecoins seem to understand the inherent dangers behind these crypto assets. To clarify, ROCKZ and Smart Valor are planning stablecoins they will peg to the Swiss Franc."

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare is launching a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Canadian dollar. The exchange plans potential roles for its new “eCAD” token in cross-border payments and remittance, peer-to-peer lending, merchant payment solutions, as well as trade settlements and forex conversions.

By forming partnerships with lenders, fiat-backed stablecoin issuers can earn additional income loaning out the funds in a similar manner to a bank. The return from these loans can then be shared with holders who are willing to store their stablecoins with the trusted partner.

The Tether (USDT) premium is going up because after the PBoC ICO/exchange ban, the most convenient way to buy cryptos in China, is to buy stable coins like USDT first using OTC, and then trade it into any cryptos on exchanges.

A new report from Techemy Capital identifies winning and losing business models, explores underwriting options beyond "cash in the bank" and predicts the likely stablecoin market evolution through to 2022.

"This review has resulted in Kinesis being awarded a Sharia-compliant certificate for the Kinesis Velocity Token (KVT), Kinesis currencies (KAU and KAG), the Kinesis Blockchain Network (KBN) and the Kinesis Currency Exchange (KCX)."

UPEUR is a stablecoin pegged at a 1:1 ratio with the Euro. Once a Universal Euro has been minted, a record of this transaction is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. It will be Euro-pegged, and available directly on Uphold and other participating exchanges.

With 147 projects announced throughout the year, 2018 was dubbed the year of stablecoins. This year, the rate of stablecoin announcements has stabilized , with 19 diverse projects announced throughout the first quarter of 2019.

"Carbon’s modular fiat on / off ramp, Carbon Fiber, will be utilized by Karma in order to offer their users a convenient way to convert fiat to cryptocurrencies. Apart from the core on / off ramp capability, Karma users will also be able to utilize a mobile pay portal to convert multiple types of cryptocurrencies into KARMA tokens in a seamless fashion."

Japanese bank holding and financial services company Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is set to put its digital currency MUFG Coin into practical use later this year.

To maintain its value, NUSD rebalances the basket’s composition according to price fluctuations and allows on-chain swapping between stablecoins within its aggregated constituent basket.

A new R3 research paper, “Will Businesses Ever Use Stablecoins?” identifies where stablecoins may fulfil needs within the established financial system.

"In an effort to restrict supply and raise the value of DAI, MKR token holders have steadily been increasing what is known as the Stability Fee in larger and larger increments. However, this week, MKR token holders have signaled their support for a smaller, more measured increase to the Stability Fee of 3 percent."

The Universal Euro (UPEUR) stablecoin is the latest digital asset product issued by the Universal Protocol alliance joining UPUSD and UPBTC launched earlier this year.

Tether has started issuing its stablecoin USDT on the Tron (TRX) blockchain, an upgrade from the OMNI protocol-based USDT.

All the stablecoin attempts that exist today (i) have enormous risks of breaking, (ii) are centralized or (iii) are extremely complex in relation to their monetary policy. That is, they are the exact opposite of the reason for Bitcoin to exist.

The TRON — Tether partnership will add another stable coin to the cryptocurrency sector. This latest example in the proliferation of stable coins will add use cases for digital currency and help increase mainstream adoption.

TrustToken will expand into four new fiat-backed stablecoins; TrueAUD, TrueEUR, TrueCAD and TrueHKD (from its TrueUSD and TrueGBP coins).

"The New York Attorney General’s office has alleged that crypto exchange Bitfinex lost $850 million and subsequently used funds from affiliated stablecoin operator Tether to secretly cover the shortfall."