DEFI
DeFi payments protocol Celo readies launch of a euro-pegged stablecoin
by Ryan Weeks
January 20, 2021, 11:28AM EST · 2 min read
The developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.
Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.
Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.
The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.
Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.
As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.
“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”
A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.
“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.
A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.
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DEFI
DeFi payments protocol Celo readies launch of a euro-pegged stablecoin
The developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.
Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.
Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.
The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.
Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.
As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.
“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”
A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.
“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.
A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.
Expand Story ▾
JAN 21, 2021, 12:28AM GMT+8
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Bitcoin miners have made more than $700 million in revenue thus far in January
Bitcoin mining revenue for January has already surpassed December's total, reaching the highest level seen since January 2018.
According to data collected by The Block, bitcoin miners have generated $728.71 million as of January 20. By comparison, bitcoin miners brought in roughly $692 million in December, as previously reported.
Underpinning these revenue figures is the rise in the price of bitcoin, which at last check is trading hands at roughly $35,000. Bitcoin's price surpassed $41,000 earlier this month.
The heightened revenue comes amid an extended supply crunch in the mining hardware sector, with demand far outstripping available machinery — and fueling a resurgence in demand for older machines as well.
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Crypto market maker Wintermute raises $20 million from Lightspeed, Pantera Capital
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The round was led by Lightspeed and included participation from Pantera Capital, Fidelity's Avon Ventures, and Sino Global Capital, among others. Existing investor Blockchain.com Ventures also participated in the round. The firm plans to use the funds to expand into new businesses and geographies.
In a note to The Block, Wintermute said that it is "highly profitable" but needed the fresh injection of capital to beef up its balance sheet to woo larger counter-parties to its over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform. The firm said that the round was "substantially oversubscribed," noting that some employees also participated.
Wintermute makes markets across 50 cryptocurrency exchanges and traded more than $30 billion in December 2020 alone. The firm said it is on track to double that amount this month.
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"Since we have some of the most competitive pricing in the market, we were literally pulled into this business by our counterparties and partners that we work with," said Gaevoy. "The algorithms we use for OTC are the same we use for our proprietary trading, so we have an advantage when it comes to pricing."
The firm continues to see an opportunity in the burgeoning market for decentralized finance (DeFi), which has been a "major growth point." Wintermute also plans to expand its operations to Asia where it will launch a physical presence in Singapore this quarter.
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DEFI DeFi payments protocol Celo readies launch of a euro-pegged stablecoin by Ryan Weeks January 20, 2021, 11:28AM EST · 2 min read The developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.
Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.
Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.
The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.
Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.
As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.
“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”
A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.
“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.
A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.
ADVERTISEMENT
DEFI STABLECOINS Related Reading
How to build a stablecoin protocol from funding rate arbitrage STABLECOINS
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While bitcoin was cratering over the weekend, institutions were buying BITCOIN
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DeFi project offers new way to trade the entire $1 trillion crypto market COMPANIES
Fiat Freeway: GMO’s JPY-pegged Stablecoin Rises in the Big Apple and Fed Researchers Weigh-in on Digital Asset Tokens vs. Accounts RESEARCH Get Your Crypto Daily Brief Delivered daily, straight to your inbox.
Enter E-mail Sign Up! DEFI DeFi payments protocol Celo readies launch of a euro-pegged stablecoin The developers behind Celo, a decentralized digital payments protocol, are plotting the launch of a new stablecoin which will be pegged to the euro.
Marek Olszewski, a partner at cLabs — one of the firms leading the development of the protocol — told The Block there had been a “flurry of activity” in the Celo community around launching a euro stablecoin over the past few months.
Testing of the on-chain governance proposals of the stablecoin is ongoing, but Olszewksi expects the token to launch in March.
The Celo platform already underpins a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, launched in the summer of last year, which can be used to make payments over mobile devices.
Today, the Celo Dollar is priced at $0.996650 with a market capitalization of around $28.5m, according to analytics site CoinMarketCap.
As with the planned euro stablecoin, the Celo Dollar is backed by a basket of crypto assets which is algorithmically adjusted to keep the price as close to its pegged currency as possible. In the case of the dollar product, Celo tokens make up 50% of the assets in reserve, which also includes bitcoin and Ethereum, according to Olszewski.
“We did a lot of work to show that having a diverse set of crypto assets is actually really good for stability,” he added. “The community is actually right now having discussions about adding other types of assets.”
A spokesperson for cLabs said the euro stablecoin will remain closely pegged to the euro “by creating an incentive for arbitragers to expand or contract the supply of cEUR to meet demand”.
“This is the same way that cUSD works, which has kept its peg since inception,” the spokesperson said.
A number of big names in the wider crypto industry – including Anchorage, Ramp, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger and Blockchain.com – are committed to building on the Celo protocol.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 21, 2021, 12:28AM GMT+8 BITCOIN Bitcoin miners have made more than $700 million in revenue thus far in January Bitcoin mining revenue for January has already surpassed December's total, reaching the highest level seen since January 2018.
According to data collected by The Block, bitcoin miners have generated $728.71 million as of January 20. By comparison, bitcoin miners brought in roughly $692 million in December, as previously reported.
Underpinning these revenue figures is the rise in the price of bitcoin, which at last check is trading hands at roughly $35,000. Bitcoin's price surpassed $41,000 earlier this month.
The heightened revenue comes amid an extended supply crunch in the mining hardware sector, with demand far outstripping available machinery — and fueling a resurgence in demand for older machines as well.
What's more, existing firms like Galaxy Digital are throwing their hat in the proverbial ring by launching financial services geared toward miners. In the case of the Toronto-listed firm, Galaxy has also put together its own mining operation at a third-party location.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 11:18PM GMT+8 BITCOIN Crypto market maker Wintermute raises $20 million from Lightspeed, Pantera Capital Cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round.
The round was led by Lightspeed and included participation from Pantera Capital, Fidelity's Avon Ventures, and Sino Global Capital, among others. Existing investor Blockchain.com Ventures also participated in the round. The firm plans to use the funds to expand into new businesses and geographies.
In a note to The Block, Wintermute said that it is "highly profitable" but needed the fresh injection of capital to beef up its balance sheet to woo larger counter-parties to its over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform. The firm said that the round was "substantially oversubscribed," noting that some employees also participated.
Wintermute makes markets across 50 cryptocurrency exchanges and traded more than $30 billion in December 2020 alone. The firm said it is on track to double that amount this month.
Wintermute is currently piloting its own OTC request-for-quote platform with several beta counter-parties and plans to launch the service within the first quarter of the year, CEO Evgeny Gaevoy told The Block. He added that the entrance of new institutional capital has made this a more attractive opportunity for the firm. In recent months, well-known investors ranging from Anthony Scaramaccui to Stanley Druckenmiller have publicized their recent bets on cryptocurrency.
"Since we have some of the most competitive pricing in the market, we were literally pulled into this business by our counterparties and partners that we work with," said Gaevoy. "The algorithms we use for OTC are the same we use for our proprietary trading, so we have an advantage when it comes to pricing."
The firm continues to see an opportunity in the burgeoning market for decentralized finance (DeFi), which has been a "major growth point." Wintermute also plans to expand its operations to Asia where it will launch a physical presence in Singapore this quarter.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 10:00PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY Pornhub adds XRP, BNB, USDC, and DOGE to its payment options Adult entertainment website Pornhub has added four new coins to its list of supported crypto payment options — XRP, BNB, USDC, and DOGE — The Block has checked on Wednesday.
The move means Pornhub's more than 120 million daily visitors can now pay for premium subscriptions in the four digital assets. Notably, Pornhub has removed the support of privacy-oriented coin Dash and PumaPay token, which were supported as of mid-December. That suggests that the changes have been made over the past month.
The latest revisions increase the number of Pornhub's supported coins to sixteen from fourteen before (see screenshot). It should be noted that Pornhub only supports crypto as the payment option for some countries, including the U.S., the U.K., and Singapore. While for some EU nations, such as Germany, it supports bank wires.
Pornhub doesn't support credit card payments anymore after facing a ban from Visa and Mastercard last month. The two payment giants cut ties with Pornhub following accusations that the pornographic website showed child abuse and rape videos. The allegations stemmed from an investigation by an opinion columnist of the New York Times. Pornhub has denied the allegations.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 8:50PM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH A brief overview of different types of stablecoins While blockchain technology enables rapid clearing and settlement with transparency and immutability, most crypto-assets are volatile and are ill-suited as a medium of exchange. There is a vast demand for stablecoins and they will become one of the significant drivers in blockchain adoption this year. As their names suggest, stablecoins require mechanisms to absorb price […] Read Report
JAN 20, 2021, 8:00PM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH Fiat Freeway: Anchorage Receives OCC Approval to Become a Federally Chartered Bank and Brian P. Brooks Steps Down From the OCC Last week, ‘Fiat Freeway’ examined the most recent interpretive letter on digital assets from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC). We’ve also previously covered GMO-Z.com Trust Company Inc.’s trust charter approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Visa’s novel offline payment system (OPS) protocol for CBDC, Paxos’ […] Read Report
JAN 20, 2021, 7:05PM GMT+8 PRIVACY Privacy-focused Brave becomes first browser to support IPFS Privacy-focused browser Brave has added support for the peer-to-peer network and protocol InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), the team behind the browser announced Tuesday.
According to the announcement, the collaboration will allow Brave's 24 million monthly users to access content directly from IPFS by resolving ipfs:// URLs via a gateway or by quickly installing a full IPFS node.
Users can download content using a content hash called the content identifier (CID). When installing a full node, Brave users can load content over IPFS's peer-to-peer network, hosted on their own node.
The integration will provide users with "a significantly enhanced browsing experience" by increasing access to content, cutting down on server costs from the content provider, and improvising the overall Internet user experience, according to a press release.
Brave CTO and co-founder Brian Bondy said Brave is the first browser to offer a native IPFS integration. "Integrating the IPFS open-source network is a key milestone in making the Web more transparent, decentralized, and resilient.”
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 6:32AM GMT+8 REGULATION Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen calls illicit use of cryptocurrency a 'particular concern' Cryptocurrencies are a "particular concern" for law enforcement officials charged with policing money laundering and other illicit finance, Treasury secretary nominee and former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said during her Senate confirmation hearing today.
The comment came in response to a question from Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who asked Yellen about emerging technical threats related to financial terrorism and how Yellen sees the Treasury's role in the battle against illicit financial activities. Hassan specifically named crypto as a possible threat, and Yellen agreed.
"I think many are used at least in a transactions sense mainly for illicit finance," she said, adding that the government needs to find new ways to curb money laundering from occurring via crypto platforms.
A date has not been set for a vote on Yellen's confirmation, but according to a Bloomberg report it could come as early as Thursday.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 4:49AM GMT+8 CRIME Chainalysis: The share of crypto transactions associated with criminal activity fell dramatically in 2020 The "criminal" share of all cryptocurrency activity fell to 0.34% ($10 billion) in 2020 — much lower than its share of 2.1% (21.1 billion) last year, according to new data from Chainalysis.
Source: Chainalysis
According to the analytics firm, one reason for the large decrease is that total cryptocurrency-based economic activity grew three-fold from 2019 to 2020.
Another factor is that Chainalysis underestimated the number of active addresses linked to criminal conduct in 2019. That's because so much of the criminal activity that occurred in 2019 wasn't identified till later, including activities connected to the China-based PlusToken Ponzi scheme.
In July of 2020, China's government said that it had finally arrested all 27 major suspects alleged to be behind the multi-billion dollar scam.
Chainalysis notes that 2020’s current crypto crime statistic of 0.34% could increase over time for the same reason. Still, the firm emphasizes that crypto crime is decreasing as a portion of the total crypto economy.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 4:45AM GMT+8 FEATURED STORY Banque de France tests 'whole lifecycle of CBDC' in landmark transaction France’s central bank says it has completed a transaction using a wholesale central bank digital currency for the first time. Full Story
JAN 20, 2021, 4:33AM GMT+8 THE BLOCK A deep dive into Coinbase's acquisition of Bison Trails In the latest episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and Ryan Todd sat down with Coinbase's Surojit Chatterjee and Joe Lallouz of Bison Trails. Full Story
JAN 20, 2021, 4:00AM GMT+8 BLOCKCHAIN Coinbase to acquire Bison Trails to compete in the market for infrastructure as a service Coinbase is acquiring Bison Trails in a move that the firm says will help it expand into an unsexy but growing corner of the crypto market. Full Story
JAN 20, 2021, 4:00AM GMT+8 EXCHANGES Binance removes $165 million worth of BNB from circulation in largest-ever token burn Crypto exchange Binance has burned over 3.6 million BNB tokens, taking out about $165.8 million in tokens from circulation, the exchange announced on Monday.
This 14th quarterly BNB token burn is the highest one ever carried out by the exchange.
When it launched BNB, Binance committed to burning 100 million BNB — roughly half of its supply — to reduce the supply. The amount the exchange burns is based on the trade volume on the platform during the previous quarter. Both BNB holders and Binance stand to benefit from a corresponding increase in the token price.
Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao has stated the exchange is a BNB holder and that most of its revenues are in BNB already.
Binance has burned about 13% of its total supply in the last three and a half years. In Monday's announcement, Zhao said it would take about 27 years to do this, but that the exchange is trying to speed this process up.
"Exactly how much faster? We are not 100% sure. The current accelerated burn would put the trajectory to be around 5-8 years to finish the 100 million BNB," Zhao wrote in the announcement. "But a number of factors could change the accelerated part in the future, including BNB price fluctuations, overall market conditions, and more."
Zhao added that a consequence of the acceleratedd burning process is that users will no longer be able to "reverse calculate" Binance's revenue based on burned BNB.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 3:37AM GMT+8 DEFI Saddle, a new automated market maker for stablecoins, goes live after raising $4.3 million A new stablecoin-to-stablecoin automated market maker (AMM) called Saddle went live today and announced that it has raised $4.3 million from venture capitalists.
Saddle's first liquidity pool will be for tokenized bitcoin that will let users swap between WBTC, renBTC, sBTC and tBTC, according to a statement.
The fundraising round was led by Framework Ventures, Polychain Capital, and Electric Capital. Other investors include Coinbase Ventures, Nascent, Dragonfly Capital, Alameda Research, and Divergence Ventures.
"Our team is elated to be collaborating with such a diverse group of builders, investors, and community members to grow Saddle. We are excited to leverage new innovations for on-chain liquidity ... and to be a community-led platform for experimentation and value-generation,” Saddle founder Sunil Srivatsa — a former Uber senior software engineer — in the statement.
While the current leading stablecoin AMM Curve specializes in stablecoin tokens, Saddle is focusing on bitcoin tokens on Ethereum. In the near future, Saddle also plans to create new pools for ETH-based tokens and stablecoins.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 20, 2021, 12:18AM GMT+8 BITCOIN BofA investor survey: Long bitcoin 'dethrones' long tech as the most crowded trade For the first time since 2017, bitcoin was reported as the most crowded trade among investors surveyed in Bank of America's January Global Fund Manager Survey.
As per a report covering the survey, 36% of surveyed participants said that "long bitcoin" was the most crowded trade, followed by "long tech." "Long tech" and "Long US tech" had been the most crowded trades since the spring of 2020.
Bitcoin gained newfound interest among institutional investors in 2020, wooing investors ranging from Paul Tudor Jones to Anthony Scaramucci. Some institutional traders have described the asset as a possible hedge against inflation.
Indeed, inflation appears to be a growing concern for investors, according to BofA's report. A record net 92% of fund managers surveyed said they expect inflation to tick higher in the next 12 months — the highest level ever.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 19, 2021, 11:49PM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH DeFi governance games: Gasless voting and Snapshot The Block Research previously looked at how governance works in Maker, Compound, and three DeFi protocols, Curve, Uniswap, 1inch, which decided to distribute part of their tokens retroactively. Each of the Defi protocols, except for Uniswap, uses its own governance framework. Moreover, currently all, except for 1inch, also support off-chain governance. Having a public forum […] Read Report
JAN 19, 2021, 8:00PM GMT+8 ETHEREUM ETH price breaks its previous all-time high record of $1,420 after three years Ether's (ETH) price has surged above $1,420 after three years, breaking its previous all-time high record.
The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is currently at around $1,423 on Coinbase, according to TradingView. The previous all-time high price was reached in January 2018.
ETH's price surge has also pushed the cryptocurrency's market capitalization to above $163 billion at the time of writing, according to tracker CoinGecko.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 19, 2021, 7:54PM GMT+8 REGULATION Dubai's financial regulator says it will develop a regulatory framework for the crypto sector Dubai's financial services regulator said on Monday that it will develop a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency sector. It should be noted that Ripple recently set up a regional base in Dubai. Full Story
JAN 19, 2021, 7:15PM GMT+8 THE BLOCK RESEARCH 2020 for BitMEX in numbers The Block Research explores relevant metrics in the context of the 2020 events for BitMEX. Read Report
JAN 19, 2021, 7:04PM GMT+8 CRYPTOCURRENCY Biden officially names Gary Gensler for SEC chairman post President-elect Joe Biden has officially named Gary Gensler as his pick for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirming previous media reports.
Gensler was chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2009 to 2014, and since November, he has led Biden's transition planning for financial industry oversight.
As the country's top securities regulator, Gensler, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, will oversee banks, brokers, public companies, as well as the crypto sector. Gensler would likely play a key role in considering a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, given revived efforts to launch one in the U.S. and institutional interest in such investment products.
Gensler, however, is no crypto enthusiast, as The Block's Mike Orcutt wrote in November. But he is blockchain savvy, having served as a senior advisor at the MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative. Gensler has also publicly commented on crypto projects, including the Facebook-backed Libra, now known as Diem.
Biden's other pick, Rohit Chopra, for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has also publicly commented on Libra in the past. Chopra currently serves as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.
Expand Story ▾ JAN 19, 2021, 6:00PM GMT+8 More
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