News Roundup — ‘A Huge Deal’ - Visa Reveals Crypto Payments Bombshell That Could Cause Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin, Solana, Tron And Toncoin Price Chaos
The bitcoin price has lost most of its summer gains in recent weeks, dragging down the price of other top ten coins ethereum, BNB, XRP, cardano, dogecoin, solana, tron and toncoin, even as China issues a game-changing update. Now, payments giant Visa has said it will ramp up its use of Circle's USDC stablecoin on its network, potentially opening the door to future bitcoin and crypto expansion. Visa will increase its experiments using Circle's USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization after tether, to improve the speed of cross-border payments and will begin sending the U.S. dollar-pegged USDC to select merchants via the solana blockchain in a newly announced pilot.
Amid the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delaying a decision on ARK Investment Management’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the firm has proposed an investment vehicle with exposure to Ether. In a Sept. 6 filing, ARK Invest and 21Shares requested the SEC approve the listing of shares of a spot Ether ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The investment vehicle, called the ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF, will have crypto exchange Coinbase act as a custodian and will measure the performance of Ether based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate.
Coinbase (COIN) has created a new crypto lending service in the U.S. for institutional clients, helping fill the void left by the blowups of firms like Genesis and BlockFi. The platform was quietly revealed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Sept. 1, which showed $57 million had already been raised for the program. According to a person familiar with the matter, clients can lend Coinbase money – predominantly crypto assets – and get collateral exceeding the value of the loan. Such overcollateralization acts as a safeguard from disaster.
Crypto gambling site Stake experienced $41 million in withdrawals on Sept. 4 in what blockchain security analysts have called “suspicious outflows.” The withdrawing account has been labeled “Stake.com Hacker” by Etherscan, implying that the drained funds may be the result of a stolen private key. Blockchain data shows very large withdrawals from Stake.com contracts into the alleged attacker’s account. The first transaction on Ethereum occurred at 12:48 pm, transferring approximately $3.9 million worth of stablecoin Tether from Stake to the attacker’s account..
Binance, the behemoth in global cryptocurrency trade volume, discontinued its support for BUSD after the token’s issuer, Paxos, stopped minting new tokens. Regulatory heat from US authorities prompted Paxos to halt production, compelling Binance to revisit its portfolio strategy. This announcement marked a watershed moment, degrading BUSD’s market valuation to just below $3 billion, according to Etherscan data from September 3, 2023. Meanwhile, TUSD — once considered a lesser rival to BUSD — saw its fortunes soar. Within a three-day span, TUSD’s supply swelled from 2.9 billion to 3.438 billion, representing a remarkable 18.55% growth.
And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!
With history in the making as El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender on September 7th, 2021, we examine the implications for the country’s financial system, its people, and the global remittance industry.