Circle’s “stablecoin” just got a big boost from one of the largest retail cryptocurrency exchanges, but there’s a nuanced issue: the token itself isn’t regulated, at least as far as one of its overseers is concerned. On Tuesday, Circle—the peer-to-peer payment service that owns crypto exchange Poloniex—and Coinbase announced the launch of CENTRE, a consortium that aims to facilitate the adoption of stablecoins. Those are tokens that are supposed to be pegged to fiat currencies by holding them in reserves. Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) is being marketed as safe, allowing users to “move dollars anywhere in the world in minutes instead of days. Cheaply and securely.” What’s more, Circle’s status…
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Fake Tethers under fake bitcoins. It's an illustration of what may be happening (Photo via Shutterstock).Tether’s bank said to be ‘desperate’ for cash
Noble may be looking for funding while Tether traders unsuccessfully try to unload large amounts of the coin
A Puerto Rico-based startup bank is said to be struggling to survive and that could have repercussions in the cryptocurrency markets. Noble Bank is trying to keep afloat and has been frantically searching for funding, according to two highly placed sources, including one at a large cryptocurrency exchange. The bank, with a large chunk of assets coming from Tether’s U.S. dollars, is said to have reached out to at least one large holder of the “stablecoin” in hopes of getting a cash lifeline, but the solicitation was rejected. The source would not elaborate on the size of the request. “If Noble doesn’t get cash soon, they will only have a…
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It’s indeed possible: A regulated US dollar-backed token is launched
Dollar-backed tokens on the blockchain, minus the fears of scam or fraud
There’s a new crypto-asset available as of Monday morning, and it’s yet another effort to come up with a U.S. dollar-backed cryptocurrency. Called Paxos Standard (PAX), the new token is maintained by blockchain technology company Paxos. The firm endeavors to digitize different kinds of assets so that they can be traded anywhere at any time using the blockchain. For now, the company can securely track trades of securities and precious metals, but will expand to support commodities of any other type down the road. Its new PAX token is an important piece of this puzzle. PAX is one of a family of so-called “stablecoins,” those cryptocurrencies that are designed to…
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Must-reads for August 16, 2018
Here are the crypto stories you should be watching today
AT&T Sued for $224 Million by Cryptocurrency Investor Who Lost a Fortune in Phone Hacks (Gizmodo) We’ve written before about how hackers have been wreaking hell and havoc on people in the crypto community (like this writer). However, they really went to town on one big crypto investor. Michael Terpin, who was in public relations during the primitive years of the Web, became a serial entrepreneur and an early investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He has also advised the likes of Ethereum, Kraken, and Tether. Unfortunately for Terpin, a huge stash of his crypto—$24 million-worth, he claims—was stolen from him during two hacks over several months. Now he’s…
