Class Action Lawsuit Against Tether and Bitfinex Dismissed by U.S. District Court Chief Judge for Lack of Plausible Allegations of Injury
Chief Judge Laura Taylor of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Tether and Bitfinex filed by Matthew Anderson and Shawn Dolifka. The lawsuit was dismissed due to a lack of "plausible allegations of injury" regarding Tether's stablecoin, USDT, being backed one-to-one by the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin issuer stated that the dismissal of the complaint at an early stage of the proceedings shows that the plaintiffs' claims lacked legal merit.
Tether Becomes 11th Largest Bitcoin Holder, Raising Questions About Market Impact and Risk
Stablecoin issuer Tether has reportedly become the 11th largest holder of bitcoin in the world, with an address potentially belonging to Tether holding around 55,022 bitcoins worth $1.6 billion. Tether has not officially disclosed its bitcoin addresses, but the value of holdings matches with the total bitcoin mentioned in Tether's second-quarter reserves report. However, Tether's large bitcoin holdings could pose risks given the cryptocurrency's highly volatile nature, according to research analysts. Tether has also been criticised for not publishing proper audits of its reserves, with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao calling it a "black box".
Major Corporations Embrace Cryptocurrency Payments, Including Tesla and Starbucks
The use of cryptocurrency has grown significantly in recent years, with many large companies adopting blockchain technology. While Bitcoin remains the most valuable and popular digital currency, other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Tether have also made an impact. This has resulted in more online platforms and physical stores accepting crypto payments, making transactions faster and more convenient for consumers.
Traders Sell Tether's USDT in Droves on Curve and Uniswap Stablecoin Pools
On Thursday, traders sold Tether's USDT in large quantities on Curve and UniSwap stablecoin exchange pools, causing the token to drop to as low as 99.76 cents and trade below its $1 peg for most of the day. The USDT balance surged to 62% in the Curve 3pool, while USDC and DAI comprised roughly 19-19% of all assets in the pool. The USDT-USDC trading pool on Uniswap also showed an imbalance, with the USDT balance standing at $105.4 million compared to just $6.5 million of USDC. These imbalances suggest that investors prefer to hold DAI or USDC instead of USDT, and similar situations have occurred in the past during market distress. The reason for the sales is currently unknown.
Tether Holds More U.S. Treasuries Than Australia, UAE, and Spain
According to a tweet by Miles Deutscher, Tether now holds more U.S. treasuries than Australia, the UAE, and Spain. Additionally, Tether's operating profits for the quarter exceeded $1 billion. For context, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, had a similar operating profit of around $1.6 billion. This news is astonishing.
Scammer Steals $20 Million in USDT Stablecoin Using Zero Transfer Phishing Attack
A scammer used a zero transfer phishing attack to steal $20 million worth of USDT stablecoin on August 1, before being blacklisted by Tether. The scammer tricked the victim into sending 20 million real USDT to a phishing address, which resembled a known address. Zero transfer phishing scams have become increasingly common in the crypto ecosystem, resulting in over $40 million in losses to such attacks. Tether froze the victim's wallet immediately, prompting speculation about the identity of the scammer.
Binance CEO CZ Zhao Plans to Offer Smaller Algorithmic Stablecoins as Alternative to Global Giants
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is exploring the possibility of introducing smaller algorithmic stablecoins to the market to provide investors with alternatives to the current dominant stablecoins. He expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and unforeseeable risks associated with large stablecoins such as Tether and Binance USD. As a result, Binance is working on algorithmic stablecoins and diversifying its stablecoin partnerships to spread out potential risks. Additionally, Binance plans to launch the First Digital USD in Hong Kong and explore new stablecoin options in Europe.
Tether Reports $850M Q2 Profit, Excess Reserves Reach $3.3B
Tether, the stablecoin issuer, has reported a net profit of $850 million in Q2, which is lower than the $1.5 billion reported in the previous quarter. The company's excess reserves now stand at around $3.3 billion, which includes the profits that Tether has decided to keep on top of the 100% reserves that it maintains to back all outstanding tokens. Tether's consolidated total assets were around $86.5 billion as of June 30, while its consolidated total liabilities were $83 billion, resulting in excess reserves of over $3 billion, a new all-time high. The company's USDT is the largest stablecoin in the market, with a supply of over 84 billion tokens.
Aave Stablecoin GHO Recovers After Depeg Possibly Linked to Curve Hack
Aave's stablecoin GHO briefly lost its $1 peg on July 31, dropping to $0.96 before regaining its peg after about two hours. The depeg was likely caused by a reentrancy attack on Curve Finance, which also resulted in the platform losing over $47 million.
Tether (USDT) Hits New All-Time High in Market Cap After Printing $1,500,000,000 in Net Profit: IntoTheBlock
Tether's market capitalization has reached a new all-time high, nearing $84 billion, thanks to billions of dollars in profits generated earlier this year. The stablecoin's circulating supply has increased by almost 30% year-to-date, and it printed $1.5 billion in net profits in Q1 of 2021. Meanwhile, competitors in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space are working on improvements to attract more users. USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, has been struggling since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March, with volumes and supply decreasing significantly.
