Circle Publishes Inuagural USDC Reserve Treasury Report for June

Co-Founder and CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire has announced the release of the company’s first monthly USDC reserve report for the month of June.

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Highlighting on Twitter, he affirmed the move as part of the stablecoin issuer’s strategy of expressing its commitment to increasing transparency and disclosure around USDC.

The report showed a detailed breakdown of the US reserve assets by every Treasury Bond. Also in the report was a precise list of the custodians of Circle’s cash reserve which was published. The compiled list is a reflection of the assets (19 securities in total) with maturity from 5th July to 29th September 2022.

 

Recently, Circle Internet Financials, a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment technology firm started a ‘Trust and Transparency’ series. The series was tagged ‘How to be Stable’ and was organised to reiterate the long-standing commitment of the firm to transparency. Then, Circle started to mint and burn data for USDC. 

 

Breakdown of the Treasury’s Assets

 

The U.S. Treasury Assets report which is yet to be audited revealed a total investment of $55.7 billion in cash and three months of U.S. Treasury Securities at the end of June. The total Securities are worth about $42.1 billion while the cash held at regulated financial institutions was over $13.5 billion.

 

Few of these banks where this cash is held are Citizens Trust Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Customers Bank, Signature Bank, Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and US Bancorp. New York Community Bank which newly became a custodian for the USDC reserve is also one of the banks. 

 

Based on the remaining days to maturity from the report date, the securities all have a weighted average maturity date of 43.9 days. The total USDC documented to be in circulation is over 55.5 billion. The public has been assured that these assets are held separately from Circle’s general operations.

 

In addition to Circle’s effort to align and publicize its USD Coins, Circle entered into a partnership with an investment firm known as BlackRock. The partnership came into reality after a funding round that yielded $400 million. BlackRock was slated to serve as a strategic investor in the funding round. Although, support was also received from Fidelity Management and Research, Marshall Wace LLP.

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At least 70% of Global Finance Leaders Believe CBDCs Will Spur Financial Inclusion – Ripple Study

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have triggered overwhelming consensus among global finance leaders, according to a survey by Ripple, a leader in enterprise crypto and blockchain solutions.

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The study called “New Value Report” interviewed 1,600 worldwide finance leaders and found a heavy inclination towards CBDCs. Ripple stated:

“More than 70% of respondents surveyed across five global regions believe CBDCs stand to deliver major social change within the next five years, with the Asia Pacific ranking the highest at 89%.”

Most finance leaders acknowledged that CBDCs would be a stepping stone toward more financial inclusion. The report highlighted:

“Four out of five regions see financial inclusion or greater access to credit as the largest potential breakthrough to be driven by CBDCs.”

Once rolled out, CBDCs are expected to drive the financial inclusion of nearly 1.7 billion people left out of the banking system, given that they are pegged to a real-world asset and backed by central banks.

 

Ripple acknowledged that CBDCs were gaining traction based on the benefits accrued. For instance, their digital nature can enhance underserved communities’ accessibility to loans and other financial services. 

 

The study stated:

“Consensus on the potential for CBDCs to bring about more inclusive financial systems is clear. While much work remains to be done, many expect the transformation to be timely and that we will begin to see the fruits of this transition before the turn of the decade.”

On the other hand, the survey highlighted that some hurdles to implementation included security protections, privacy, offline access, identity verification, and consumer education. 

 

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia recently conducted a CBDC feasibility study by offering a white paper concerning establishing the digital Rupiah. 

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Bitcoin’s Balance on Exchanges Hits a 4-Year Low Amid Traders Becoming Overly Optimistic

As Bitcoin (BTC) continues hovering around the $20K area, the balance on exchanges is shrinking.

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Market analyst Ali Martinez explained:

“The last time the BTC balance on exchanges was below 2.38 million BTC was in late July 2018 when Bitcoin was trading at around $8,000.”

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Source:Glassnode

 

Bitcoin exiting crypto exchanges is bullish because it symbolizes a hodling culture, given that coins are often transferred to cold storage and digital wallets for future purposes other than speculation. 

 

With BTC’s balance on exchanges dropping to a 4-year low, time will tell whether this will trigger the much-needed momentum to drive the leading cryptocurrency upwards based on its current consolidation around the psychological price of $20,000.

 

For the ranging market to be breached, Michael van de Poppe believes the $21,200 area should be broken. The CEO and founder of educational platform Eight stated:

“No break of $21.2K for Bitcoin means some more consolidation. On the other hand, the coming weeks are crucial for EUR/USD. It makes sense to have a slight reversal there, and I’m also expecting Bitcoin not to be done with the upside. Cracking $21.2K is a crucial one.”

Similar sentiments were shared by crypto trader Rekt Capital, who pointed out:

“It’s easy to become bullish on BTC on a green day & bearish on a red day. But BTC is still just between $19K-$22K. This will continue until either of these levels is broken.”

Bitcoin oscillated around the $20.6K zone during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin traders are depicting high optimism levels, suggesting that they expect a bullish momentum. On-chain insight provider Santiment stated:

“Bitcoin’s mild +8% July rise has been enough for crypto traders to begin breaking out the lambo & moon mentions again. Whether sarcasm or not, this occurs when traders are becoming overly optimistic. Mentions hit their highest levels since Jan 18.”

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Source:Santiment

 

Furthermore, BTC was one of the trending topics among investors due to high social dominance levels, Blockchain.News reported. 

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Kia America Deploys NFTs in New Creative Campaign Debuting the New 2023 KIA Soul Model

Kia America, a leading automotive brand, has launched a new creative campaign featuring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for its iconic 2023 Kia Soul model.

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Per the announcement:

“The 30-second spot features NFTs as talent and incorporates a unique QR code embedded into the creative.”

Therefore, viewers will have the opportunity to attain one of the 10,100 Kia-themed NFTs by scanning the QR code using their smartphones. Afterward, the NFTs will be stored in their Sweet blockchain wallet.

 

Russell Wager, Kia America’s marketing vice president, stated:

“With its iconic style, endless adaptability, capability, and advanced technology, Soul redefined the boxy small-car segment when it was first launched in 2009 and has steadily evolved to appeal to customers across generations with its edgy good looks, practicality, and efficiency.”

The 10,100 Kia NFTs draw inspiration from the DASK digital collectibles and the new 2023 Kia Soul. Wager pointed out:

“The Soul is as individualistic as the NFTs are, and as a brand, Kia is always innovating to stay on the cutting edge.”

Kia’s creative agency called David&Goliath developed the NFTs, which are expected to spur innovation in the automotive brand. 

 

Ben Purcell, the chief creative officer at David&Goliath, noted:

“With Kia, we want the work to be as innovative as the vehicles. So we thought, what if we could be the first to take a few NFTs for a ride? Living, breathing, and of course driving, like never before.”

The NFTs are anticipated to offer viewers a Web3 experience. Tom Mizzone, the CEO and founder of Sweet, acknowledged:

“It’s a significant milestone for mass adoption since it marks the first NFT drop embedded into a national TV commercial. As such, it will be seen by millions of people, many of whom are experiencing the world of Web3 for the first time.”

Meanwhile, Han Sung Motor, a South Korean imported car dealer, recently rolled out NFTs to offer customers a secure and convenient experience based on the option of checking car details using their smartphones.

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CoinFlex to Allow Users to Withdraw up to 10% of their Balance

According to Bloomberg News, CoinFlex will allow users to later withdraw 10% of their balance after suspending withdrawals last month.

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On June 29, CoinFlex CEO Mark Lamb revealed on Twitter that cryptocurrency investor Roger Ver owes the company $47 million. The Bitcoin.com founder failed to repay CoinFlex, and the crypto exchange suspended withdrawals in June.

CoinFlex canceled pending withdrawals on July 15 and then closed trading on the platform. After that, users can only withdraw up to 10% of their balance, and the rest will be frozen.

CoinFlex says it has taken legal action to cover losses and is trading with another cryptocurrency after a counterparty to cryptocurrency investor Roger Ver failed to pay a $47 million margin call, negotiating the signing of the joint venture.

The cryptocurrency exchange platform was founded in 2019. The company is a smaller crypto exchange focusing on derivatives trading. CoinFlex’s halt in withdrawals has come at a time when the crypto industry has been experiencing liquidity problems and contagion.

Earlier, Ver had tweeted, “Recently some rumors have been spreading that I have defaulted on a debt to a counter-party. These rumors are false. Ver denies he defaulted on his debt to CoinFlex.

CoinFlex said in July 14: “We are continuing to work on all avenues to resolve this situation. This ranges from possible further withdrawals and potential new equity investors to the acquisition of CoinFLEX and combinations in between.”

The company said it will release its latest update on July 22.

CoinFlex announced in late June that it planned to raise funds by issuing a new token that would offer a 20% annual return. The cryptocurrency exchange plans to issue $47 million in “recovery dollar” tokens as a solution to re-enable withdrawals.

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Paraguay Senate Passes Bill to Regulate Crypto Mining and Trading

The Senate of Paraguay, a South American nation, on Thursday, approved a bill to regulate cryptocurrency mining and trading in the country. 

The passage of the law is part of an approval made in December last year, but was modified in May by the Chambers of Deputies (the lower house of Paraguay’s bicameral legislature) and therefore returned to the upper chamber (the Senate) for further considerations.

Both chambers have now approved the bill and so it must be submitted to the executive branch, which has the power to approve or veto it.

The proposal modified by the Chamber of Deputies and accepted by the Senate designates the Ministry of Industry and Commerce as the main law enforcement authority to penalize individuals or firms conducting mining or offering crypto services without obtaining legal authorization.

The bill further delegated powers to the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Asset Laundering to be in charge of supervising the entire investment process conducted by crypto firms. Besides that, the bill designates The National Electricity Administration to be responsible for enabling the energy supply while the National Securities Commission is tasked with overseeing commercial activities involving digital assets. This involves licensing and overseeing crypto mining companies operating within the country. The proposed law does not make any cryptocurrencies legal tender.

The bill states that individual and corporate mining firms are expected to request for approval to use industrial electricity consumption and then apply for a business license. The proposed legislation also creates a registry for any individual or firm seeking to offer cryptocurrency trading or custody services for third parties.

The new legislation also expects crypto exchanges to register their businesses as virtual asset service providers with the anti-money-laundering agency of Paraguay.

Expanding Crypto Legal Framework

The latest Paraguay’s bill appears to build on previous legislations. In July last year, Paraguay became the second country to propose a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender after El Salvador announced the crypto as legal tender last June.

However, the bill was quite different from that of El Salvador. A leaked draft of Paraguay’s crypto bill showed that the country had no intention of making Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency legal in the country.

Instead, the nation’s focus was on creating a regulatory framework, especially when it comes to taxation. The aim of the legislation was to create a legal certainty, financial and fiscal in the businesses derived from the production and trading of digital assets.

Unlike El Salvador, Paraguay has had a lot of the same concerns that some other nations have had with crypto entities — that of taxation. The nation wanted to ensure that crypto companies are brought under its tax regime and to have traceability for such transactions and investments.

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Decentralized Oracle Empiric Network Raised $7M Led by Variant

Decentralized oracle on StarkNet, an Ethereum Layer 2 network (a scaling solution) – Empiric Network has secured $7 million in funding led by Variant.

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Empiric Network integrates smart contracts with data from cryptocurrency exchanges and large market makers, connecting them to retrieve or send information.

Unlike traditional centralized oracles that lack data transparency, Empiric Network acts as a decentralized oracle, and users can audit the data aggregated from the blockchain on its own blockchain.

Empiric’s oracle helps communicate data using smart contracts connecting the real world and blockchain. The oracle finds and verifies events and gives this information to the smart contracts on the blockchain.

The funds raised will be used primarily to expand the current talent team.

Other investors include Alameda, CMT, Flow Traders, crypto exchange Gemini, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, among others.

Zero-Knowledge (ZK) sidechain StarkNet helps solve the problems of its native Ethereum environment by bridging decentralized finance (DeFi) metrics such as risk, volatility, and yield metrics onto the platform for a cheaper and faster network. cost and congestion issues.

Karl Oskar Schulz, the co-founder of Empiric Network, said the blockchain oracle is designed to give DeFi the data it needs to really mature and get better.

In like manner, DeFi protocol Morpho Labs has secured $18 million funding, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Variant.

In 2020, Blockchain monitoring and automation platform PARSIQ has integrated Chainlink price oracles to trigger off-chain actions and trading decisions.

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Central African Republic to Launch Sango Coin Cryptocurrency Next Week

The Central African Republic (CAR), a landlocked country in Central Africa, plans to launch its Bitcoin investment platform popularly known as “Sango Platform” on July 25. That is according to an email sent to pre-registered users of the country’s cryptocurrency project.

As per the email seen on Friday, the Sango Platform will serve as a central hub for crowdfunding, distribution and community support efforts.

The email further stated: “Users are now able to become eligible and get ready for the official launch on the 25th of July by registering & getting KYC approved.”

The African nation further announced on Friday that it will launch a national cryptocurrency called “Sango Coin”, which is designed to complement its digital currency hub project, “Sango platform.”

The launch and sales of “Sango Coins” worth $21 million will begin next week. The sales will commence when 210 million Sango Coins are on offer, priced at $0.10 each, according to the country’s Sango investment website.

The “Sango Coin” will go on sale on July 25 with a minimum investment of $500 to be paid in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The CAR’s nation’s treasury will hold 20% of the Sango Coin, as per the project’s website. The use of the Sango Coin is tied to the marketing of the country’s resources and government services on residency, citizenship, and land ownership.

Based on the CAR ‘s digital currency investment initiative, foreign investors will be able to buy citizenship for $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency, with the equivalent Sango Coins held as collateral for five years. Foreign investors will be able to purchase “e-residency” for $6,000 in cryptocurrency, held for three years.

Furthermore, both foreign and local investors can buy a 250-meter square plot of land listed as $10,000, with the Sango Coins locked away for a decade, according to the Sango website.

CAR, which relies on donors for over half of its budget, is rich in resources including Gold, Diamond, rare minerals, and other unexploited resources. Sango Coin will therefore enable direct access to the country’s resources for the whole world.

As per the Sango website, there would be 12 more-coin sales, with the price rising each time. However, several details are unclear, as the type of technology being used, firms supporting the rollout, and whether the price of the token would be free-floating or fixed, are still unknown.

The Sango investment platform terms and conditions stipulate that unused Sango Coins cannot be refunded and converted back into other cryptocurrencies.

Sango Coin will be the native cryptocurrency of the Sango investment project. It is backed by a Bitcoin reserve and governed by the country’s citizens. Sango Coin comes with several potential applications, including crypto trading, daily shopping, and digital economy investments.

Revitalize National Economy

As reported by Blockchain.News, the Central African Republic made headlines when it adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in April.

Now, the country plans to roll out its own national cryptocurrency “Sango Coin”. The move towards cryptocurrency is part of the nation’s plan to revitalize its economy and develop its financial inclusion with a ‘next-generation currency.’

The President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadera, in a recent event, described ‘Sango Coin’ as the currency for the next generation. The president disclosed that an estimate of 57% of the national citizens does not belong to a bank. The country is made of small cities with little infrastructure, which make people unable to easily travel to a physical bank.

President Touadera believes that cryptocurrency can provide a safer approach for local residents to use and store their funds.

CAR became the second country to adopt Bitcoin after El Salvador. However, the details of its plans have remained scanty.

Touadera’s administration caught key stakeholders, including the regional Bank of Central African States, and crypto experts unaware. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank also recently raised concerns about the country’s Bitcoin adoption, citing a lack of transparency and the potential impact on financial inclusion.

CAR’s crypto ambitions still face major challenges, given that it is one of the world’s poorest countries with significant infrastructure gaps. In the country, access to the internet and electricity is quite low. Only 557,000 of the country’s 4.8 million people have access to the Internet and electricity coverage.

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EquitiesFirst Owes $439 Million In Debt to Celsius Network

EquitiesFirst, an Indianapolis-based specialist finance company best known for lending cash to institutions secured against their stock holdings, is identified as a debtor to the prominent crypto lender Celsius Network. That is according to Celsius’ bankruptcy filings, as reported by Financial Times media outlets.

On Thursday, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky stated in a court filing that his firm was owed $439 million by a “private lending platform,” which he did not mention. However, two individuals familiar with the knowledge disclosed that the platform is EquitiesFirst.

The court filing said the relationship between the two companies initially came from deals in which Celsius started borrowing from EquitiesFirst in 2019 on a secured basis to support its business operations.

The relationship expanded and later it turned out that EquitiesFirst owed Celsius amounts worth $509 million on an unsecured basis.

EquitiesFirst had slowly paid down the debt since September last year. Although the firm is steadily paying off the debt, there is still an outstanding loan worth $439 million — made up of 3,765 Bitcoins and $361 million in cash — which are yet to be paid.

“EquitiesFirst is in ongoing conversation with our client and both parties have agreed to extend our obligations,” EquitiesFirst told Financial Times media.

EquitiesFirst, which was founded in 2002, specializes in loans secured against company stock. The firm began lending against cryptocurrencies around 2016.

According to the report, EquitiesFirst’s lending in the crypto landscape was typically at a 60% loan-to-value, secured against cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

Efforts to Rescue Business

The funds owed by EquitiesFirst is a huge amount of Celsius’s assets, which hundreds of thousands of its clients will be relying on to recover some of their deposits.

The EquitiesFirst debt, which Celsius had not disclosed before, now provides context to the difficulties the crypto lender encounters as crypto markets plunged hard this year.

On 12th June, Celsius suspended all customer transactions and withdrawals across its networks, citing extreme market conditions.

On Wednesday this week, Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection as it seeks to stabilize its business by restructuring in a manner that maximizes value for all of its stakeholders. In the meantime, Celsius stated that it has $167 million in cash on hand to support operations.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,401.34 1.44%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,657.07 0.16%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 65.77 0.13%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 231.90 6.89%