We will let you enjoy US Federal agencies vs Crypto episode n° 15436
After all these years of endless unproductive discussions, the American authorities have yet to agree on how to qualify the crypto. Ethereum was created in 2015, it’s been 8 years… CFTC sues Binance because ETH is a commodity. SEC sues Kraken because ETH is a security. Will the OCC sue anyone on the basis of ETH being a currency??
But why insist on trying to make circles fit into squares? Regulators, could you please move on? Faster?…
MicroStrategy has Strong hands
MicroStrategy bought the dip, again. With the company, Michael Saylor, a significant holder of Bitcoin, has paid off the remaining principal on its $205m loan from Silvergate Bank and purchased another 6,455 Bitcoins for roughly $150m, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. MicroStrategy's holdings now stand at 138,955 Bitcoins, worth approximately $3.88bn at the current price. The company also disclosed it raised $339.4m this year through the sale of its shares and used the proceeds to repay the loan from Silvergate. The market offers opportunities. Microstrategy seizes it. Why not diversify your treasury investment in Bitcoin? Good hedge against banking crisis. You won't be alone
Defeat inflation and pay in crypto everywhere
Inflation in Argentina reached 102.5% in February from a year earlier, one of the highest rates in the world, putting further pressure on an economy expected to enter recession before this year's presidential election. In this context, digital assets in payments could offer several advantages to businesses in Argentina. Some digital assets can be considered and used as a store of value, which means that they can offer protection against inflation. Businesses that accept crypto payments may therefore be able to protect themselves against the loss of value of the local currency. In addition, crypto payments are faster and cheaper than conventional payments, as they do not require intermediaries. In a country with high operating costs, crypto payments could help businesses to reduce costs and improve their profitability. There are obviously hedging tools, it is possible to hold accounts in USD in American banks for large accounts, but this has a cost and makes the transaction time slower. Payment in crypto is almost instantaneous, and is traceable end-to-end on the blockchain. We interact with more and more people with local payment concerns, crypto respond to the problems of their CFO responsibility.
Cryptocurrency firm Tether, which issues the USDT stablecoin pegged one-to-one with the US dollar, has estimated it will make a $700m profit in Q1 2023, taking its total excess reserves to over $1bn. Tether's reserves are made up of real-world assets such as fiat currency and US Treasuries, and the company produces reports from an auditor attesting to its reserves and assets. The value of all USDT in circulation has grown from $70.98bn on March 1st to $78.14bn as of March 27th, helped in part by the collapse of Circle's rival stablecoin USD Coin, which lost its dollar peg when investors became concerned about its stability.
Want to take a week off ? Think again. Senate hearing this afternoon and House hearing tomorrow on Bank failures. Yellen is also expected to give a pitch at NABE Event Thursday. Core PCE needs to be followed on Friday for Fed guidance.
The Fipto Research Team
Sources : Defillama , CNBC, Bloomberg
