Tether's $5.2 Billion Profit 🚀
USDT issuer's record profit in H1 2024. $35T US debt is good for Bitcoin? $12B in VC funds for crypto in 2024? Tucker Carlson - Bitcoin is a CIA creation. BTC is economically useless - Paul Krugman.
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Tether clocks $5.2 BILLION in the first half of 2024.
More moolah than most countries have lying around.
How come? USDT🚀
And, Tether's buying up US Treasuries. Proper.
USDT market dominance: USDT's market capitalisation sits at $114 billion, with total reserves exceeding $118 billion.
Massive treasury holdings: Tether's US Treasury holdings are now valued at $97.6 billion, exceeding the reserves of most governments.
USDT backed by reserves: Tether claims its USDT stablecoin is backed 1:1 with these reserves, which are verified by an independent accounting firm.
Financial reserves and liabilities: Tether reports holding reserves totalling $118.4 billion against liabilities of $113.1 billion.
Tether's Treasury reserve now exceeds the size of all but 17 global governments, more than Germany and the UAE.
The company ranks third in purchasing three-month US Treasuries, following the UK and Cayman Islands.
And Bitcoin? Tether's reported Bitcoin stash hasn’t budged from 75,354 BTC, contradicting Ardoino’s tweet claiming 80,000.
Not just Tether, the entire stablecoin market is thriving.
Stablecoin market cap has increased for 10 consecutive months.
Reaching $164 billion in July.
Read: CCData Report
Tether remains the largest stablecoin with 69.6% market dominance.
Other stablecoins: USD Coin (USDC), BlackRock's BUIDL, and PayPal USD (PYUSD) also saw growth, while First Digital USD (FDUSD) and Ethena USDe declined.
Trading volume decline: Despite the growth in market capitalisation, stablecoin trading volume on centralised exchanges decreased by 8.4% to $795 billion.
The second largest
USD Coin (USDC) has seen a massive surge in both market cap and trading volume, especially on the Solana blockchain.
Thanks to strategic partnerships and developer incentives, USDC is quickly becoming the go-to stablecoin for many.
USDC trading volume up: USD Coin (USDC) trading volume increased by 48% in July to $135 billion.
Market cap growth: USDC's market capitalisation rose by 5.4% to $33.6 billion.
MiCA impact: The implementation of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework boosted USDC's performance as Circle became the first approved stablecoin issuer.
Now, the reasoning
High stablecoin activity = people are using crypto.
On-Ramp for fiat: Stablecoins serve as a bridge between fiat currencies and the crypto world. Increased activity can mean more adoption. People use them for various purposes, including payments, remittances, and investments.
Increased DeFi activity: Many decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols rely on stablecoins as a core component. Higher stablecoin trading volume can indicate increased DeFi activity, which in turn contributes to overall crypto market growth.
Higher demand for crypto transactions: Stablecoins are used as a medium of exchange in the crypto ecosystem. Increased trading volume suggests more frequent crypto transactions, indicating higher overall market activity.
Enhanced Liquidity: Stablecoins are crucial for providing liquidity in the crypto market. Higher activity means deeper liquidity pools, which can reduce price volatility and attract more traders.
Market Maturity: A thriving stablecoin ecosystem can contribute to the overall maturity of the crypto market. It suggests that the industry is developing the infrastructure necessary for wider adoption.
Yes, strong interest for digital assets.
A new survey by EY-Parthenon agrees.
94% of institutional and 83% of retail investors see digital assets as a long-term investment.
54% of institutional and 64% of retail investors plan to increase their digital asset holdings.
72% of retail investors see digital assets as a core part of their wealth strategy and want financial advice on crypto and digital assets.
62% of institutional and 57% of retail investors prefer to invest in digital assets through registered vehicles like ETFs.
In The Numbers 🔢
$35 trillion
That’s where the US debt has reached.
Bring on questions on inflation and how much we can trust good ol' fiat money.
According to Bitfinex analysts, government bonds will become less attractive, as large part of the US government’s spending will be directed towards debt servicing, not toward productive sectors.
So, is this good news for Bitcoin?
Investors are increasingly looking for alternative stores of value. Why not Bitcoin? which is often referred to as "digital gold."
Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of trading firm GSR
“The fact that much of the world has ballooning debt and is arguably in a ‘debt trap’ is the part that’s really good for Bitcoin.”
Jeff Yew, CEO of crypto asset manager Monochrome
“When traditional risk-free assets like fixed income are backed by a currency engineered to depreciate at an unprecedented pace, investors are reconsidering their risk-free status and look towards alternatives like Bitcoin, which offers a strategic asymmetric return profile in a diversified portfolio.”
Matt Bell, the CEO of Turbofish
“The recent news of the US national debt reaching the record high of $35 trillion highlights growing concerns around the sustainability of traditional fiat currencies. This situation stresses the importance of Bitcoin as ‘hard money’ — a decentralised and deflationary asset that offers a hedge against currency devaluation.”
Fed decision: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep interest rates unchanged for the eighth consecutive time.
Stocks continued to rise following the Fed's decision, while cryptocurrencies experienced a slight dip after earlier gains.
The Fed's statement suggested a potential rate cut in September.
$12B in VC Funds for Crypto in 2024
Crypto startups are about to have a seriously good year.
A recent PitchBook report suggests that crypto startups are on track to secure $12 billion in VC funding in 2024, exceeding 2023's total.
North American startups have received the most funding (56% or $3.1 billion) so far this year.
What fuels it? The upcoming US election could significantly impact VC funding, with a potential Donald Trump win.
What's it looking like? You know, you can buy Trump sneakers if you want.
1/Politics
After witnessing the recent Bitcoin 2024 conference, where politicians were throwing around ideas like a Bitcoin-backed national reserve, Bitwise’s Matt Hougan is convinced we're underestimating Bitcoin's potential.
“These ideas would have been the stuff of daydreams a year ago. But after what I witnessed last week, they look more likely than not.
Less than two years ago, FTX was collapsing in a historic fraud, bitcoin was trading at $17,000, and skeptics were dancing on crypto’s grave. Now politicians are openly talking about building a Bitcoin Fort Knox.”
2/Whales
CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju believes large investors are positioning themselves for an upcoming altcoin rally.
Block That Quote 🎙️
Former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson.
“Obviously it was the CIA, we all know that”
Carlson believes Bitcoin is a CIA creation.
“It’s like Signal, they got there first. It’s a honeytrap”
While Carlson's conspiracy theory about Bitcoin's origins has been circulating for years.
Once, CIA even confirmed that it had initiated projects focused on cryptocurrency to combat ransomware schemes.
Carlson said he loves Bitcoin, we are all happy.
Even the legend who created BTC.
‘Bitcoin is economically useless’
What’s everyone saying about Bitcoin?
Economically useless - Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman
“Tech-bro support for Trump and Vance also seems to have a lot to do with one specific issue: cryptocurrency. The truth is that bitcoin, which was introduced 15 years ago, an eon in tech time, remains economically useless.
“A 2022 survey found that transactions involving crypto assets ‘are seldom used for payments outside the crypto ecosystem.’ A couple of exceptions to its uselessness are money laundering and extortion.”
Store of value - Goldman Sachs CEO, David Solomon
“I don’t see a real use case. I think the technology underlying it is super interesting. There very well could be a store of value case. I’ve never been a gold bull because I kind of stepped back and I’ve said over a 25 or 50-year period we’ve generally done better to invest in gold.”
There’s merit - Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.
The Surfer 🏄
Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million in Q2 2023, up from $27.4 million in Q2 2022, largely due to April's bitcoin halving event. Total revenue fell to $70 million in Q2 2023, down from $76.7 million in the same quarter last year, driven by a decrease in engineering revenues.
Telegram introduces an in-app browser that supports decentralised websites, enhancing user experience on both mobile and desktop. Users can now access “TON Sites,” to launch their own web servers on The Open Network.
The Bahamas has enacted a new crypto law, DARE 2024, to prevent disasters like FTX and Terraform Labs' collapses.
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