USDC whale holdings percentage lowest in almost two years

August 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

USDC tokens held by the largest addresses have dropped to a two-year low as Circle freezes Tornado Cash-related assets.

The percentage of USD Circle (USDC) stablecoins held by major wallet addresses dropped to its lowest point in almost two years as the cryptocurrency market downturn continues.

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode has released the latest data on USDC metrics, reflecting a recent sell-off of the second biggest U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin by market capitalization.

$USDC Percent Supply Held by Top 1% Addresses just reached a 22-month low of 87.667%

Previous 22-month low of 87.669% was observed on 20 August 2022

View metric:https://t.co/EU57HUtLdu pic.twitter.com/dG7Qj1bAjF
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) August 22, 2022

As Cointelegraph previously reported, sanctions imposed on cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash by the U.S. Treasury Department had a marked effect on the capitalization of both USDC and its biggest competitor, Tether (USDT).

While USDT markets saw growth of almost $2 billion in the days following the sanctions, USDC’s market cap shrunk after its issuer Circle decided to freeze some 75,000 USDC tokens held by addresses linked to Tornado Cash.

Various commentators have suggested that some users shifted funds from USDC to USDT, given the correlation in the decline and growth of the respective stablecoins’ market cap. Data from Glassnode shows that the percent of USDC held by the top 1% of addresses reached a 22-month low of 87.667%.

While on-chain data shows that there has been a sell-off of USDC over the past fortnight, metrics released by Glassnode on Aug. 22 showed that the seven-day moving average of USDC exchange deposits also reached its lowest point since March 2021.

$USDC Number of Exchange Deposits (7d MA) just reached a 17-month low of 138.250

Previous 17-month low of 138.810 was observed on 23 March 2021

View metric:https://t.co/yhG6sKrvi6 pic.twitter.com/tB9ZoQVs7j
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) August 22, 2022

While the market cap of USDC might be down, the stablecoin reached a three year high in terms of weekly mean transaction volume, surpassing the previous high registered in June 2022.

$USDC Mean Transaction Volume (7d MA) just reached a 3-year high of 228,721.050 USDC

Previous 3-year high of 226,056.588 USDC was observed on 19 June 2022

View metric:https://t.co/VUwnIn7YLP pic.twitter.com/FDrgkDUIuZ
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) August 22, 2022

USDC had been touted to contend with USDT as the top stablecoin of 2022 by market capitalization in July 2022, edging to within $11 billion of Tether's market cap. This percentage has eroded since the Tornado Cash debacle.

Tether remains mute on whether it would blacklist or freeze USDT tokens linked to the sanctioned mixer. Cointelegraph has reached out to the stablecoin operator to ascertain whether it will follow Circle's lead in freezing assets linked to Tornado Cash addresses, given the potential legal ramifications.

Stablecoin issuers hold more US debt than Berkshire Hathaway: Report

August 22, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Berkshire Hathaway

Tether, Circle and other stablecoin firms held $80 billion worth of short-term U.S. government debt as of May 2022, more than owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Stablecoin issuers like Tether (USDT) and Circle have accumulated a significant share in the United States Treasury market, outperforming major traditional finance players.

Various stablecoin providers collectively held $80 billion worth of short-term U.S. government debt as of May 2022, according to a study by the investment bank JPMorgan released on Aug. 16.

Tether, Circle and other stablecoin firms accounted for 2% of the total market for the U.S. Treasury bills, holding a bigger share of T-bills than totally owned by Warren Buffett’s investment giant Berkshire Hathaway.

Stablecoin issuers have also outperformed offshore money market funds (MMF) and prime market MMFs in terms of their Treasury-bill investment proportion, according to the data.

*U.S. Treasury bill investor composition. Source: JPMorgan*

Considered to be low-risk assets, Treasury bills are debt instruments that are commonly used by companies as a cash equivalent on corporate balance sheets. Tether and Circle — issuers of the world’s biggest asset-backed stablecoins, Tether and USD Coin (USDC), — have pledged to buy U.S. Treasury bills while cutting reliance on commercial paper earlier this year.

The move came amid uncertainty surrounding algorithmic stablecoins sparked by TerraUSD (formerly UST) losing its U.S. dollar peg in May 2022.

In contrast to algorithmic stablecoins, which rely on algorithms and smart contracts to support their U.S. dollar backing, asset-backed stablecoins like USDT and USDC are designed to guarantee the 1:1 peg by holding cash and common cash equivalents. At the time of writing, USDT’s market capitalization amounts to $67.6 billion, while USDC’s market value is $52.4 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.

As previously reported, USDC has seen notable growth in market cap, while Tether’s market dominance has been dropping since May. "Market confidence in Tether as a stablecoin has been gradually eroding, with the events over the past few months accelerating that dynamic," JPMorgan said. According to the bank, one of the primary drivers behind the shift has been the "superior transparency and asset quality of USD Coin’s reserve assets."

Tether Hires BDO Italia for Monthly Assurance Reports, USDT’s Quarterly Attestation Shows a 58% Decrease in Commercial Paper

August 20, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Coinbase Says This Crypto Asset Will Be the Foundation of New Era of Financial Services

August 17, 2022 The Daily Hodl

USDC Issuer Circle Joins Chainlink in Only Supporting Proof-of-Stake Ethereum After the Merge

August 10, 2022 The Daily Hodl

TORN price sinks 45% after U.S. Treasury sanctions Tornado Cash — Rebound ahead?

August 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ban

TORN is near a historically strong support range, eyeing a 75% rebound by September 2022.

Tornado Cash (TORN) has lost almost half its market valuation two days after being slapped with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The department accused Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer platform, of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies, including a stash of $455 million allegedly stolen by North Korea-based hackers.

Immediate reactions were followed by U.S.-based crypto companies, including Circle and Coinbase. In a controversial move, the popular crypto firms blocked the movements of their jointly-issued stablecoin USDC tied to Tornado Cash's blacklisted smart contracts.

TORN price drops 45%

The news prompted traders to limit their exposure to TORN, Tornado Cash's native token.

On the daily chart, TORN's price has slipped by approximately 45% since the Justice Department's notice about Tornado Cash, to reach $18.50 on Aug. 10. By contrast, the valuation of all the crypto assets had plunged merely 6% in the same timeframe.

*TORN/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView*

Interestingly, TORN's selloff accompanied a spike in daily trading volumes, suggesting momentume.

TORN technicals suggest recovery

The downside move has pushed TORN price near a critical technical support.

TORN has been testing its $15-$18 range for a potential rebound due to its historical relevance as support. Notably, in January and June earlier this year, this level served as a springboard for TORN price to jump 275% and 100%, respectively.

*TORN/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingView*

Therefore, a potential rebound move from the range could have TORN tes $32.50 as its next upside target, which coincides with the 0.236 Fib line as shown above. In other words, a 75% recovery by September 2022

On the other hand, a breakdown below the support range sends TORN's price to new record lows.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Tether also confirms its throwing weight behind the post-Merge Ethereum

August 10, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

We believe that a smooth transition is essential for the long-term health of the DeFi ecosystem and its platforms, including those using our tokens,” Tether stated.

Hot on the heels of an official announcement from USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle Pay, stablecoin giant Tether has now also officially confirmed its support behind Ethereum’s upcoming Merge upgrade and switch to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism-based blockchain.

The announcement came on the same day as its stablecoin competitor, who pledged they will only support Ethereum’s highly anticipated upgrade.

In an Aug. 9 statement, Tether labeled the Merge one of the “most significant moments in blockchain history” and outlined that it will work in accordance with Ethereum’s upgrade schedule, which is currently slated to go through on Sept. 19.

“Tether believes that in order to avoid any disruption to the community, especially when using our tokens in DeFi projects and platforms, it’s important that the transition to POS is not weaponized to cause confusion and harm within the ecosystem.”

“Tether will closely follow the progress and preparations for this event and will support POS Ethereum in line with the official schedule. We believe that a smooth transition is essential for the long term health of the DeFi ecosystem and its platforms, including those using our tokens,” Tether added.

While the official statement only came out today, the stablecoin issuer's chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino had already previously indicated in July that they planned to support the post-Merge ETH2.

I meant that we plan to support ETH2.
— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) July 31, 2022

USDT is currently the largest stablecoin in crypto with a total market cap of $66.6 billion, while USDC is relatively close behind at $54.1 billion according to CoinGecko. Both stablecoins have a significant amount of their circulating supply on Ethereum’s current Proof-of-Work blockchain, with USDT at $32.3 billion and USDC taking the top spot at $45.1 billion at the time of writing.

Given the size of these stablecoins and their dominance over the stablecoin market, the show of this support in this instance should result in a smooth transition for the Ethereum, USDT and USDC ecosystems, as well as the broader crypto market as a whole.

However as Vitalik Buterin recently warned, their power could potentially cause issues in future Ethereum hard forks, as centralized entities such as Tether and Circle could choose to utilize the forked chain of their own preference, rather than what the Ethereum community has proposed.

“I think in the further future, that definitely becomes more of a concern. Basically, the fact that USDC’s decision of which chain to consider as Ethereum could become a significant decider in future contentious hard forks,” he said.

Stablecoin issuers (Circle/Tether) control fork choice in Ethereum.

What happens when the state pressures Circle to support a fork that goes against “eth community social contract?” https://t.co/dP7ZPFiJ0u
— Brandon Quittem (@Bquittem) August 6, 2022

This week Ethereum will undergo its final Merge trial via the Goerli testnet, and if all goes to plan, there is an expectation that the Sept.19 Merge date is unlikely to be delayed.

Circle