Cryptocurrency Financial News
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3188.0, up 1.8% (+56.34) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
All 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: XLM (+10.3%) and POL (+6.7%).
Laggards: BTC (+0.4%) and SOL (+1.4%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
Polygon Foundation CEO Sandeep Nailwal described the upcoming Heimdall 2.0 upgrade as the “most complex” Polygon hard fork since 2020.
As bitcoin BTC continues a now multi-week consolidation just below its all-time high of $112,000, an interesting accumulation phenomenon is occurring.
Both short-term and long-term holders have been increasing their stacks as distinct cohorts, which is unusual because these groups typically act in opposite directions, according to Glassnode data.
The chart below from Glassnode illustrates the 155-day threshold used to classify coins as belonging to Long-Term Holders (LTH) or Short-Term Holders (STH).
Since June 22, the LTH supply has increased by 13,000 BTC, returning to an all-time high of 14,713,345 BTC. Meanwhile, over the same period, STHs have grown their BTC supply by more than 60,000 BTC and now hold over 2.3 million BTC.
According to Glassnode data, LTH and STH cohorts usually diverge because LTHs often sell into bull market strength, while STHs tend to buy amid market greed and euphoria.
This alignment suggests that both groups of market participants are expecting higher prices. If both cohorts continue increasing their supply, there is a strong possibility that all-time highs will be surpassed.
Elon Musk says that his new America Party will support Bitcoin, but does it have a chance in the American political system?
Status, a decentralized communications project, has launched a feature that it claims makes the network the first natively gasless layer 2 on Consensys’ Linea zkEVM stack.
The layer 2, called Status Network, will operate differently compared to conventional rollups that depend on sequencer fees to stay afloat, the Status team said in a press release. The new L2, which already went live with its testnet, eliminates transaction costs altogether and instead rewards liquidity providers and funds builders with yield generated from bridged assets and native app fees.
“We designed Status Network so developers can ship games, seamless social experiences and DeFi protocols without forcing users to preload gas or builders to manage paymaster contracts,” said Cyprien Grau, the lead at Status Network, in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “By rehypothecating yield-bearing TVL and sharing every cent of net yield with the community, we’re aligning incentives for all L2 stakeholders: builders get funding, LPs get sustainable returns, and users get a true free-to-play blockchain.”
According to the team, Status’s approach converts bridged ETH and stablecoins into yield-bearing equivalents — like stETH or sDAI — and channels that income to support its ecosystem, sidestepping sequencer fees entirely. This, the team argues, will set up the protocol for a self-sustaining loop with those looking to play blockchain-based games: gasless UX attracts users, deposits, and activity, which in turn grows native yield and community incentives.
“With fees replaced by native yield, users can interact with apps without needing to bridge tokens or top up gas, creating a frictionless experience,” the team wrote in the press release.
Status Network’s mainnet is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2026.
Read more: Sequencers Are Blockchain’s Air Traffic Control. Here’s Why They’re Misunderstood
Crypto exchange Bullish has struck a partnership with the Solana Foundation, aiming to make Solana-native stablecoins the backbone of its trading and clearing operations.
Under the collaboration, the two will work on institutional-grade financial infrastructure with stablecoins built on Solana to serve as the primary rails for custody, payments, and settlements across Bullish’s ecosystem, the companies announced Wednesday.
The Bullish Exchange, which clears over $2.3 billion in average daily volume, is owned by the Bullish Group, which is also the parent of CoinDesk.
The move underscores a shared push to build faster, cheaper infrastructure that merges traditional and decentralized finance.
“We’re excited to collaborate with the Solana Foundation,” said Tom Farley, the CEO of Bullish, in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “Solana has proven itself as rails for next-generation financial infrastructure—fast, efficient, and ready for institutional scale.”
The collaboration comes as stablecoins are having a moment in crypto markets, emerging as key tools for payments and trading amid growing demand for low-cost, reliable digital dollars. Currently, the total market cap of stablecoins stands at $255.5 billion, with Solana stablecoin market cap at $10.9 billion, making it one of the top three stablecoin blockchains based on market cap, according to DeFiLlama data.
Solana’s speed and low fees have helped it attract a wave of new developers who are building projects that benefit from quick finality and scalability, like stablecoins, DeFi networks, or tokenization of real-world assets.
“Solana was built for moments like this—where performance, scale, and real-world adoption converge,” said Lily Liu, the President of the Solana Foundation, in the press release.
Read more: Major TradFi Institutions to Pursue Tokenization Efforts on Solana
Launched in late 2024, Ripple’s enterprise-focused RLUSD stablecoin has hit a $500 million market cap in less than seven months.
BONK tumbled 5.6% in the past 24 hours, falling $0.00002161 after a wave of selling pressure reversed earlier gains and broke through key support zones. Despite the near-term pullback, underlying ecosystem developments continue to support a broader bullish narrative.
Attempts to reclaim $0.000022 between 20:00 UTC-21:00 UTC faltered despite 716.32 billion tokens in turnover, signaling deepening bearish control.
However, beneath the surface, BONK’s foundations are strengthening. Bonk.fun platform, closely tied to the token, has surged to dominance – accounting for 55% of Solana token launches. Over 200,000 projects have launched on the platform, generating 24-hour trading volume of $539 million on Tuesday.
Millions in platform fees are being redirected toward BONK buybacks and burns, reducing supply and reinforcing value. Community sentiment on X (formerly Twitter) reflects this shift, with users increasingly framing Bonk.fun's ascent as a structural market share rotation in favor of BONK.
While there may be continued selling pressure in the short term, BONK’s expanding ecosystem utility and aggressive tokenomics suggests deeper resilience – and potential upside – beyond the immediate chart.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
Crypto exchange Kraken and tokenized asset issuer Backed Finance are bringing tokenized equities to the BNB Chain (BNB), allowing trading with stocks like Apple and Nvidia around-the-clock on the network, the firms said on Wednesday.
The move allows token versions of U.S. stocks such as Apple (AAPLx), Tesla (TSLAx) and S&P 500 ETF (SPYx) to be issued as BEP-20 tokens and accessible to users across BNB Chain’s ecosystem. The development comes with BNB Chain joining the xStocks Alliance, a network of exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that offers trading with 60 equity and ETF tokens on crypto rails.
Kraken said it will allow users to deposit and withdraw xStocks tokens through the BNB Chain in the upcoming weeks. The goal is to integrate equity tokens deeper into DeFi, making them available to move across protocols and chains or post as collateral for borrowing, Adam Levi, co-founder of Backed, said in a press release.
“This is the beginning of an always-on equity market — one that is permissionless, transparent, and built for the internet,” Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, said in a statement. “These instruments behave as programmable settlement primitives, unlocking atomic settlement, real-time global transferability, and composability with on-chain lending, derivatives, and structured products.”
Trading platforms are racing to bring equities onto blockchain rails as tokenization of traditional financial instruments, or real-world assets (RWA), gains steam. Backed's xStocks debuted last week on Kraken, Bybit and Solana-based (SOL) DeFi platforms, while Gemini and Robinhood have introduced trading with tokenized U.S. stocks.
Crypto exchange Bitget also introduced xStocks tokens on its trading platform on Wednesday after joining the alliance, the exchange said in a press release.
Read more: Backed Finance Debuts Tokenized Stocks on Bybit, Kraken and Solana DeFi Protocols
This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.
XRP's price rose to a high of $2.83 during the early U.S. hours Wednesday, hitting levels last seen on May 23, according to data CoinDesk data,
The move happened as the Guppy multiple moving average indicator, flashed a bullish signal. The ribbon indicator comprises six short-term exponential moving averages (EMAs) with periods ranging from three to 15 days showing short-term trend. It also includes six long-term EMAs with periods between 30 days and 60 days, representing long-term trend.
A bullish signal occurs when the six short-term averages cross above the long-term averages, as can be seen on XRP's daily chart below.
The bullish crossover of the Guppy averages indicates that the path of least resistance is now on the higher side, with potential for a rally to $2.649, the high registered on May 14.
Bybit will host PumpFun’s PUMP token sale from July 12–15, but users in Europe will be excluded due to regulatory restrictions.
Credit card users in Japan can now convert their loyalty points into crypto. Major conglomerate SBI Group's APLUS is letting cardholders redeem APLUS points for small amounts of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), or XRP (XRP).
2,100 points will earn users over 2,000 japanese yen worth of tokens, around $13 at current exchange rates. The crypto is handled by SBI’s exchange arm and deposited directly into the user’s VC Trade account.
The feature is opt-in and available only for cards that qualify under the APLUS Points program.
Although a relatively small amount, it marks the first time cryptocurrency has been added to APLUS’s prize catalog, which previously focused on cashbacks and partner rewards.
For SBI, it’s a low-stakes way to drive user exposure without pushing speculative trading. The bank has backed Ripple for years, and XRP was the first token listed on VC Trade when it launched in 2018.
The integration matters in Japan’s heavily regulated crypto environment, signaling a level of compliance maturity that most regions still lack and offering everyday card users a glimpse of the crypto experience without the marketing blitz.
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) quietly lodged an S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission late on July 8, seeking approval for the “Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF.” Despite a swirl of social-media posts placing the paperwork in early June, the SEC’s time-stamp confirms the filing date as July 8. The prospectus sketches a five-coin portfolio weighted approximately 70 percent to bitcoin, 15 percent to ether, 8 percent to solana, 5 percent to Cronos and 2 percent to XRP, making it the first Trump-branded product to diversify beyond the two largest digital assets.
The trust, structured as a Nevada business trust and sponsored by boutique issuer Yorkville America Digital, aims to list its shares on NYSE Arca. Foris DAX Trust — the US institutional arm of Crypto.com — is named digital-asset custodian, while authorized participants will create and redeem blocks of 10,000 shares in kind or for cash, subject to NYSE rule changes. The prospectus also discloses that staking rewards on ether, solana and cronos may be passed through to the fund, a design choice that would set a precedent among US spot-crypto ETFs.
Analyst Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg distilled the filing in two succinct posts on X: “New filing for the Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF, which will be a spot crypto basket holding Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP and Cronos,” he wrote; in a follow-up, he reproduced the pivotal language: “the Trust’s allocation… is initially expected to approximate 70% bitcoin, 15% ether, 8% SOL, 5% CRO and 2% XRP.” Those percentages now serve as the market’s working model for how the Trump universe ranks crypto’s ‘blue chips.’
Overall, the allocation may serve as an implicit ranking of the top five crypto assets as viewed through the lens of Trump’s inner circle. Binance top trader by PnL Nachi (@alphawifhat) commented via X: “I think it’s useful to look at the allocation ratio of the Truth Social Crypto ETF […] I see this as an indication of how Trump’s crypto team looks at the top crypto assets and what are the top 5 they want to value the most. This could be a catalyst to pump CRO as it’s a dark horse.”
Solana’s climb to an 8 percent weight is more than a momentum trade. CME Group this spring announced cash-settled Solana futures pending CFTC sign-off, extending the same institutional rails that helped bitcoin and ether graduate into ETF form. Notably, the SEC has set a July deadline for spot Solana ETF refilings, indicating a potential approval before the October 2 deadline.
Cronos leaps over better-capitalized tokens because Crypto.com is literally powering Trump’s ETFs. “We are proud to partner with Trump Media and Yorkville… including the first-of-its-kind basket of tokens featuring CRO,” Crypto.com co-founder Kris Marszalek said in March when the multi-year, roughly $2.7 billion partnership was unveiled. Under the agreement, Crypto.com supplies custody, liquidity and back-end order routing for all Truth-branded funds.
XRP brings up the rear at two percent, reflecting both its renewed legitimacy and its still-nascent institutional plumbing. On June 27, Ripple Labs announced that it will withdraw its cross appeal against the SEC.
The token’s modest two-percent slice is politicized as much as it is financial. In early March a staffer from Ballard Partners—the K-Street shop that counts Ripple as a client—slipped Donald Trump draft language for a Truth Social post urging that XRP, Solana and Cardano be placed in a national “Crypto Strategic Reserve.” Trump hit “post” and only later discovered the Ripple connection; insiders told Politico he “was furious and felt like he’d been used.” Despite that, the inclusion of XRP still shows Trump’s ties with Ripple.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.33.
If the U.S. House of Representatives manages to reach a floor vote on the Senate's stablecoin bill next week, it could result in President Donald Trump fulfilling at least half of his mission to deliver new laws for the crypto sector this summer.
That'll be a highlight among a bundle of actions during a period labeled “Crypto Week” by lawmakers hoping to record significant legislative wins for the sector. But the bigger-ticket item is the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act to establish first-ever federal regulations to oversee the wider U.S. crypto markets. That effort is also going to spend some more immediate time in the spotlight during a Senate hearing on Wednesday as that chamber continues its crypto momentum after notching a major recent win with passage of its stablecoin bill.
The Senate bill to regulate stablecoin issuers, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, will be tackled without an effort to meld its language with the House's similar legislation, a person familiar with the House's planning confirmed. A yes vote in the House would send it to Trump's desk to be signed into law, where it would become the first major law to regulate the U.S. crypto space.
That development would effectively abandon the House's own Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act, as the House bends to the momentum demanded by Trump and its Senate counterparts. Politics is speeding beyond recent suggestions from Representative French Hill that the two chambers could iron out material differences between the bills to find a “common constructive landing place.”
As GENIUS rises toward a potential status as a second major Trump legislative accomplishment in as many weeks — joining his budget push that is already energizing significant elements of the president's agenda — the House will redirect its major focus on the Clarity Act that's the bigger hit in the one-two crypto punch weighed by Congress. At his White House crypto summit earlier this year, Trump set an ambitious August deadline for two related pieces of crypto legislation: the stablecoin bill and rules for the structure of crypto markets. When the Senate recently passed its legislation to govern the issuers of stablecoins (such as Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC), the president called for the House to sign off on that bill right away rather than pushing its own language, and he seems to be getting his way.
Senator Bill Hagerty, the backer of the GENIUS Act, said in a statement, “I look forward to enacting the GENIUS act into law, and to working with my colleagues to move the CLARITY act through the Senate in short order.”
While the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott had declared a September 30 deadline for market structure legislation to be cleared through the Senate, it was unclear whether the chamber would lean into its own legislation or borrow more heavily from the House's Clarity Act. Scott said that Clarity would be a “strong template for us to move forward on.”
However, Scott's committee can't move forward alone and also needs the Senate Agriculture Committee to agree to the approach, and that panel is so far trailing. A spokesperson told CoinDesk that Chairman John Boozman is keen to install the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a chief crypto regulator and that his committee will pursue a hearing sometime this month, though its calendar remains bare.
So far, House lawmakers have cleared the Clarity Act through the relevant committees, and a vote from the overall House would send it over to the Senate for consideration. If Trump follows his game plan with GENIUS, he may urge the Senate to just take up the House legislation without putting its own spin on the language and delaying the process. But in most legislative matters, the Senate's more difficult road for passing bills tends to put it into the driver's seat as efforts near the finish line.
Hill said he'd be “ready to work alongside the Senate as they work to advance standalone market structure legislation by the end of September.”
A digital assets advocacy group, Stand With Crypto, sent a letter to all the House lawmakers this week calling form them to get behind the Clarity Act, arguing that the bill “will not only enable and empower developers to innovate, but also protect consumers through choice, foster greater participation in the blockchain economy and strengthen national security.”
And industry insiders including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse were set to make a case for legislation at Wednesday's Senate hearing.
“Once market structure legislation for digital assets becomes law in the U.S., this will catalyze a new era of U.S. competitiveness and unlock efficiencies in financial transactions — dramatically helping consumers and businesses alike,” Garlinghouse contended in the testimony he submitted to the Senate Banking Committee.
Crypto Week is also set to tackle what's been a shared grievance of the crypto industry and congressional Republicans: the idea that the U.S. could ever issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act would block such an instrument from ever being created by the Federal Reserve, with its advocates arguing that a U.S. token could let the government spy on citizens' finances, though there has been no serious U.S. effort underway to launch such a coin to compete with other jurisdictions such as China and Europe.
The GENIUS Act is widely expected to pass the House, and an earlier version of the CBDC bill already did last year. If the market structure legislation also passes the House, as a predecessor bill known as Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) easily did in the last session, the Senate becomes the last hurdle for the crypto industry's top priority.
Still, it's not a done deal there. The Senate generally needs 60 votes to pass a bill of this kind. While GENIUS got a whopping 68-30 approval, many of the Democrats who joined Republicans to pass the stablecoin bill shared reservations about the coming market structure effort.
Some influential Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, hold a lot of sway over their party, and they've argued for months that the market structure effort leaves regular people insufficiently protected and poses national-security concerns. However, the more prominent complaint from Democrats is that President Trump's heavy involvement in the crypto industry poses a potential conflict.
Though his representatives have defended his family's deep ties to businesses that include involvement with memecoins, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital wallets and crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Trump's Democratic critics say the president's ties amount to high-level corruption, and the lawmakers are pushing legislative provisions to ban senior government officials from such connections to the sector.
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said that corporate ETH treasuries are vital for driving ecosystem growth.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) whales have stepped up their sales as the cryptocurrency's price recovery looks to gather steam alongside an uptick in futures market activity. The path of least resistance still appears to be on the higher side.
SHIB, the world's second-largest meme token by market value, traded above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the May-June sell-off as of writing, up over 1% on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk data.
Prices have gained over 5% in one week alongside bullish signals from key indicators such as the 14-day relative strength index. The momentum oscillator has crossed into the bullish territory above 50 for the first time since May 23.
Supporting the bull case are volume figures, which have exceeded the daily average of 307.5 billion tokens during the recent price recovery phase, according to data tracked by CoinDesk's AI research.
Meanwhile, open interest in perpetual futures listed on Binance has surged past the 7 million SHIB mark for the first time since May 23, according to data source Velo. The upswing, accompanied by positive funding rates, suggests an increased investor interest in betting on continue price gains.
The ascent, however, could be challenged by whale and insiders moving trillions of coins to exchanges, with ten wallets controlling over half of the total token supply.
(Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.)
By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering around $108,600, pretty much unchanged over 24 hours. The broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index added 1.8%, shrugging off the uncertainty surrounding President Trump’s recent tariff threats against various countries.
President Donald Trump sent letters to 14 nations, including key partners in Asia, warning that tariffs will be applied starting Aug. 1 unless they make concessions to the U.S. when it comes to trade. Trump also said he will impose a 50% tariff on imported copper and up to 200% on pharmaceuticals.
Traditional markets were also muted in their responses. U.S. equity indexes were flat in yesterday’s session, while Europe opened with a slight upward momentum and Asian indexes closed higher. The U.S. dollar index is pretty much unchanged.
The market’s reaction suggests the so-called TACO — Trump always chickens out — trade is still in play. It's a reference to the president’s negotiation pattern, in which tariffs are announced and then reversed. That's even after he said “there will be no change” to next month's deadline.
Still, past tariff announcements stoked inflation concerns, and this latest one comes as the Federal Reserve tightens liquidity to the tune of $40 billion a month, according to analysts at crypto hedge fund QCP Capital.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned that tariff‑driven price spikes might delay any rate cuts, which would make risk assets like crypto less attractive for investors.
Nevertheless, earlier scares of a U.S. recession have cooled, with perceived odds of that happening this year dropping to 20% on Polymarket, the lowest since January.
Over the past week, cryptocurrency investment products brought in nearly $1 billion in net inflows, according to CoinShares data, pushing total assets to a record $188 billion. Bitcoin funds captured the lion’s share of those flows, with ether, solana and XRP funds logging solid demand.
Combined with a stream of corporate treasuries raising funds to buy bitcoin, demand remains elevated for the leading cryptocurrency.
Apart from exceptions like PNUT and some Grok-influenced memecoins, other altcoins aren’t faring as well. Bitcoin’s dominance has risen nearly 12% year-to-date to now account for roughly 65% of the ecosystem's total market capitalization.
Whether the TACO trade will hold its merit ahead of the August deadline remains to be seen. Stay alert!
The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation conference (formerly known as State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique event held in Washington on Sept. 10 that allows general counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to meet with public officials responsible for crypto legislation and regulatory oversight. Space is limited. Use code CDB10 for 10% off your registration through July 17.
By Shaurya Malwa
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Source: Farside Investors
Polymarket is locked in another controversy over the interpretation of UMA, a decentralized oracle that utilizes token holder voting to resolve prediction markets.
UMA – a protocol which is a separate entity from Polymarket – is no stranger to controversy, having ruled before with interpretations that even Polymarket doesn't agree with.
This time, it’s about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's attire: Polymarket bettors were asked if the typically casual leader would appear in a suit before July.
On June 25, Zelenskyy wore an outfit described by the BBC, New York Post, and others as a suit. Yet the market is set to resolve “No,” sparking outrage from those set to lose their bets on the $200 million market.
“UMA's voting incentives encourage people to vote with the perceived majority to avoid penalties, not based on factual correctness,” RememberAmalek said. “This creates conditions ripe for manipulation.”
RememberAmalek is a prominent Polymarket bettor who earned $300,000 predicting Zohran Mamdani's upset victory in New York's mayoral primary by identifying critical flaws in polling data and betting against conventional wisdom. Between his multiple accounts, he's earned well over $1 million in wins.
In UMA's dispute resolution system, voters stake tokens to participate in deciding market outcomes. Those who vote against the final consensus face penalties known as “slashing,” where a portion of their staked tokens is confiscated or reduced.
This economic penalty structure motivates voters to align their choices with the anticipated majority opinion, even when it contradicts their genuine interpretation of factual correctness.
“One person holding millions of tokens and deciding multi-million dollar outcomes is not decentralization,” he said, referring to UMA's largest whales that hold a controlling share of tokens and sometimes slash those that vote against them.
On-chain data parsed by IntotheBlock shows that 95% of UMA tokens are held by large holders. For the sake of comparison, just over half of ETH tokens are held by large holders.
“It undermines the entire point of using prediction markets to find truth,” the trader continued.
Reflecting on his own strategies, RememberAmalek admitted openly to betting on UMA resolutions rather than the underlying facts of markets.
“Polymarket and UMA need an immediate rethink of their resolution mechanism,” he said. “Every major dispute damages user trust, particularly smaller bettors who feel scammed and leave.”
And what's the solution in his eyes? Perhaps ironically, centralization.
But done professionally and transparently. By Polymarket itself, not some outside protocol.
Because right now, “this isn't decentralized,” he concludes.
Read more: Polymarket Embroiled in $160M Controversy Over Whether Zelenskyy Wore a Suit at NATO
Tether Holdings, the issuer of the market’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has revealed that it maintains a vault in Switzerland to safeguard an impressive $8 billion stockpile of gold.
According to Bloomberg, the firm’s significant reserve of nearly 80 tons positions Tether as one of the largest gold holders globally, surpassed only by central banks and sovereign nations with the company based in El Salvador expressing intentions to expand its gold reserves further.
In a recent interview, Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, emphasized the security of their vault, claiming it to be among the most secure facilities worldwide. While he confirmed the vault’s location in Switzerland, he opted not to disclose its exact whereabouts, citing security concerns.
Tether is best known for its stablecoin, USDT, which aims to maintain a one-to-one value with the US dollar. According to CoinMarketCap data, USDT dominates the stablecoin market with a capitalization of $158 billion. Circle’s USDC follows closely behind with a capitalization of $61 billion.
However, both companies are expected to see a major surge in this metric as the recently approved US Senate stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, aims to provide issuers with a new regulatory framework that could further boost adoption and usage of the assets by traditional financial companies.
The company also generates revenue by exchanging dollars for USDT tokens and investing the collateral in various assets, including US Treasuries. According to Tether’s latest financial report, precious metals now account for nearly 5% of the company’s reserves.
In addition to USDT, Tether has introduced a gold-backed token known as XAUT, with each token representing one ounce of gold. Token holders have the option to redeem their XAUT for physical gold, which can be collected directly from the Swiss vault.
Ardoino articulated a growing belief in gold as a safer asset compared to national currencies, particularly in light of rising concerns over the increasing debt levels in the United States.
He noted that as these concerns grow, investors may seek alternatives, such as gold. The firm’s CEO further highlighted that every central bank within the BRICS nations is actively purchasing gold, which he believes has contributed to the rising price of the precious metal.
Per the report, the decision to establish Tether’s own vault rather than relying on traditional precious metals vault operators was primarily influenced by cost considerations.
As of press time, Circle’s newly launched stock, CRCL, has closed the trading day at $204, approximately a 31% gap between current valuations and their record price of $298.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
Emirates and Crypto.com will work together to introduce crypto payments and launch promotional campaigns to boost adoption.
