Tether holds about $100 Billion in US treasuries

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino took the stage at Lugano’s PlanB event in Switzerland to provide a breakdown of the reserve assets underpinning the company’s Tether-USD stablecoin USDT after rumors circulated that the US Department of Justice and the Treasury were looking into the company.

Ardoino claims that Tether has around $100 billion in US Treasury securities, 48 tons of gold, and over 82,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $5.5 billion at current market prices.

The CEO of Tether highlighted the asset reserves amid the fear, skepticism, and uncertainty caused by a recent Wall Street Journal article that said US authorities were investigating the company for allegedly violating US sanctions and anti-money laundering regulations.

The stablecoin company claims that since 2014, Tether has assisted law enforcement in recovering almost $109 million that was utilized in illegal activities like fraud, sanctions evasion, and cybercrime.

Additionally, Ardoino recently attacked the United States crypto regulatory policy for lagging behind other nations. This has led to the departure of numerous innovative digital asset enterprises from the US to more advantageous locations. The CEO of Tether did, however, also convey optimism that things will change after the US presidential election in 2024.

In October 2024, Tether’s USDT reached an incredible market valuation of $120 billion. Investors and speculators interpret this as a positive indication for the cryptocurrency markets, which might lead to greater prices in the upcoming weeks and months.

Tether recently gained attention after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the stablecoin issuer was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the US government, according to anonymous sources. Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, was quick to refute the allegations, adamantly declaring that the “WSJ is rephrasing old noise.” Tether was equally unreserved in his criticism of the study, calling it “woefully irresponsible” and filled with “reckless allegations.”

Vitalik Buterin plans to boost Ethereum’s efficiency

Posted on October 27, 2024October 27, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Vitalik Buterin wants to make Ethereum more efficient by eliminating technical debt, streamlining the protocol, and decreasing data bloat ( known as “The Purge”). The Purge seeks to eliminate unnecessary data storage and outdated functionality to increase Ethereum’s efficiency while preserving “the permanence” of Ethereum

The Purge is not anticipated to affect Ethereum’s gas fees. The recommended changes could reduce operating costs and enhance network functionality. Addressing the major obstacle, new nodes encounter when attempting to join the Ethereum network increasing storage requirements—is a crucial component of The Purge.

According to ycharts statistics, a fully-synced Ethereum node presently needs more than 1.17 terabytes (TB) of storage, mostly because of previous data. Buterin’s essay also emphasized the network’s present state, exposing that any newly formed state data is permanently kept, leading to the state’s constant expansion.

The Purge also aims to lower client storage needs “by reducing or removing the need for every node” to preserve all history. Buterin’s Purge blog post follows The Verge’s launch, aimed to enhance the usability and security of running an Ethereum network node.

The Verge update uses “stateless verification,” which aims to minimize the hardware required for blockchain block verification without storing much data. This new verification method might “make fully verifying the chain so computationally affordable” and let any mobile wallet, or web wallet, use the network as a node.

Solana’s trading activity hits all time high

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

DefiLlama claims that Solana has been in charge of the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem’s daily trading volumes for 13 days. $2.6 billion was traded on the network’s decentralized markets on October 24. Blockworks Research data highlighted transaction-related fees on Solana (SOL) hit a new all-time high of more than $11 million on October 24.

Consequently, a notable increase in tokens relating to AI overtook Solana. According to Hashed’s dashboard on Dune Analytics, the Memecoin-focused launchpad Pump. fun hit a record-breaking 36,339 deployed tokens on October 24.

A new record was made when the total amount was deployed on Pump. fun surpassed 84% of the 43,166 new tokens released on Solana at the end of the week. Data from Blockworks Research, Pump. fun-launched tokens moved about $8.7 billion last week, taking the lead in weekly trading volumes on Solana for the first time.

Pump. fun surpassed 1 million SOL in sales just nine months after its start, breaking another significant milestone on October 24.
The platform’s vibrant developer community continuously enhances the network, keeping it innovative and competitive.

Solana’s strategic partnerships—like those with major exchanges and DeFi projects encourage further adoption. The increasing number of projects built on Solana, from decentralized exchanges to lending platforms, demonstrates its growing significance in the crypto market

Solana’s demand will probably increase as more developers and users choose it because of its affordability and effectiveness, which could result in large price increases. SOL is a great option for any investor looking for significant gains because analysts are confident it will hit new highs before January 2025.

Cardano makes huge bets on Bitcoin

Posted on October 27, 2024October 27, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Cardano is integrating the BitcoinOS Grail Bridge to enable decentralized programmability and scalability on Bitcoin, marking a significant milestone.

Cardano’s founding company, EMURGO, has teamed up with BOS to improve liquidity through the Grail Bridge, for the trustless bridging of Bitcoin and other Bitcoin assets. Grail Bridge enables Bitcoin users to transfer their assets using zero-knowledge cryptography

Cardano is now the first significant Layer 1 blockchain to integrate with BOS infrastructure, allowing Bitcoin’s enormous capital to use its ecosystem of cryptocurrency features. In a tweet, BitcoinOS stated that this is not simply a technological milestone but also the return of the most well-known figures in cryptocurrency to Bitcoin.

Charles Hoskinson, the creator of Cardano, has alluded to an ambitious goal to enhance the Bitcoin environment by relaunching the Bitcoin Education Project in 2025 and offering state-of-the-art resources for Bitcoin developers.

The Bitcoin Education Project, which Hoskinson created in 2013, provides free, peer-reviewed content about Bitcoin and digital assets. In a tweet, he said that now that Bitcoin is “back in the family,” he intends to relaunch the Project in 2025 and develop a new edition of his course in the educational program.
Hoskinson stated that in addition to updating earlier material, the new version will provide materials tailored especially for developers wishing to create apps on the Bitcoin network.

Aiken Script, a cutting-edge programming language and toolkit for creating smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain, will be available to Bitcoin developers to broaden their programming toolkit. This includes hosting on Maestro and utilizing the hyper ledger GitHub.Hoskinson added that Bitcoin developers can create hybrid Cardano/Bitcoin apps in Aiken and pay for their transactions in Bitcoin via babel fees.

Bitcoin Keeps Hesitating at $70K

Posted on October 27, 2024October 27, 2024 by Skerdian Meta

Bitcoin broke out of the descending channel early last week, as BTC climbed above $65,000, but buyers continue to fail at $70,000. Buyers have tried to approach this major level twice this week, but both times Bitcoin was rejected and BTC returned lower to the top of the previous range.

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Ripple files appeal on XRP institutional sales

Posted on October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Ripple Labs challenged a recent decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a Form C filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
On October 25, Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, verified the filing in an X post. He stated, “The SEC can’t submit new evidence or ask [Ripple] to produce more.

The complaint was brought after the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in August that Ripple was fined $125 million for selling XRP to institutions as the sales were considered securities transactions.

The district court ruled that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP to accredited investors were securities transactions, but the appeal contests this ruling. The court’s use of the Howey test, a legal criterion to determine whether a transaction counts as an investment contract, is particularly contested in the appeal.

In its Form C petition, Ripple requests a de novo review of the case and establishes the legal foundation for its appeal. With a de novo review, the appeals court can revisit the district court’s legal interpretations without relying on its earlier findings.

The SEC’s tactic of “distraction and confusion for Ripple and the industry” is “just background noise now,” according to Alderoty, who had shown optimism in his X post.

In July 2023, District Judge Analisa Torres found that while Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP constituted an unregistered securities offering, the retail sales did not satisfy the Howey test’s requirements for a “security.”

Hacker returns a large stash of Ether, USDC to US government

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

A hacker returned $19.3 million to the government wallet less than 24 hours after stealing almost $20 million from a U.S. government wallet on October 24 using funds stolen in the Bitfinex hack that occurred in 2016.

According to Arkham Intelligence, the hacker’s wallets, beginning with the characters “0xc9E,” sent the funds back to the US government’s wallet. About 88% of the funds have been returned.

Onchain statistics show that the hacker returned about 2,412 Ether, 7,200 USD Coin, and $13.2 million in Aave-staked USDC. The restored funds do not include the approximately $700,000 that the hacker sent to immediate exchangers, according to ZackXBT

Although the hacker’s identity and the reason for the attack remain unknown, such an occurrence shows an increasing trend of hacks and exploits in the third quarter of 2024.
This month, $50 million was stolen from Radiant Capital, a cross-chain lending system.

The hacker compromised Radiant Capital contracts on the BNB Smart Chain and Arbitrum networks by obtaining the private keys required to sign transactions from Radiant Capital’s multi-signature wallet.

The hacker moved $52 million in cash to the Ethereum network around a week after the vulnerability, making it difficult to retrieve the stolen money.

Ambient Finance, a decentralized trading platform, experienced a front-end attack on its website the next day. The Ambient Finance team claimed a hacker had access to the website domain. Later, Ambient Finance reclaimed the ownership of the domain and allowed users to access the website.

Tether denies being under investigation

Posted on October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of the crypto firm Tether stated the business was not under investigation by US federal authorities. The statement follows a claim by The Wall Street Journal that Tether may be under investigation for sanctions and anti-money laundering violations.

Tether, more especially USDT, is the world’s leading stablecoin issuer. Stablecoins, a subset of the cryptocurrency market typically based on the dollar or other non-volatile assets, represent the more steady side of transactions in otherwise volatile cryptocurrencies.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, released on Friday, prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office were in charge of the federal probe. It referenced anonymous sources allegedly with knowledge of the situation.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office refused to comment, on the matter. Likewise, requests for a statement from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were not immediately answered.

Tether and its CEO have maintained that the ten-year-old corporation is working with governments despite previously refusing to cooperate. “It would be difficult to find another financial company that matches the level of cooperation with law enforcement and the number of relationships with agencies that Tether has in 45 countries, including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service,” said Arduino, who attended the event on its 40th anniversary.

Microsoft opposes plan to invest in Bitcoin

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Olumide Adesina

Microsoft opposes a plan to invest in Bitcoin despite its resilience to inflation. The tech giant urged its shareholders to reject the proposal at the next shareholder meeting.

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American tech giant wants its shareholders to reject a plan to consider Bitcoin, a treasury investment at its next shareholder meeting.

Microsoft’s board of directors urged shareholders to vote against this resolution at the company’s shareholders’ meeting on December 10. The company has previously “carefully considered this issue,” considering options like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies “.
Microsoft feels that such a public evaluation of Bitcoin was not justified,” the tech firm further disclosed monitoring trends and developments related to cryptocurrencies to inform its future decision-making dot.

Large corporate treasury prefers stable and predictable investments to ensure liquidity and operational funding. Rapid price movements are a factor when evaluating cryptocurrency investments.

The conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research’s proposal, emphasized MicroStrategy’s bitcoin investment strategy and the company’s surpassing of Microsoft by over 300 percent this year “despite doing only a fraction of the business”—is noteworthy. He added that spot ETFs are helping institutional and corporate adoption of Bitcoin become more “mainstream.”.

Additionally, the proposal points out that although bitcoin is still erratic, it might be a good inflation hedge. “Businesses should consider the advantages of having even 1% of their assets in Bitcoin, at the very least. “

Forex Signals Brief October 25: Canada Retail Sales Close the Week

Posted on October 25, 2024October 24, 2024 by Skerdian Meta

Yesterday we had the October Services and Manufacturing PMI reports from many countries, which showed a mixed picture. The German PMI numbers came above expectations, which is a positive sign after many negative reports, helping the Euro, while the GBP remained weak as the UK numbers showed that activity in both sectors is heading toward stagnation.

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