💬 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino predicts that the United States will be the first to regulate cryptocurrencies.

He connected via video to DC Fintech Week, a conference in Washington, to explain how Tether is cooperating with global governments.

“There is no place like the United States.”

“I think it’s very, very important that sensible crypto and stablecoin regulations come to fruition in a way that will protect end users.”

Will Ethereum remain institutions' top choice?

jonahrobrts breaks down the blockchain competition for TradFi's attention 🤼‍♂️

========================================

Disruption. Digitization. Financial inclusion. Future-proofing.

What do all of these oft-repeated buzzwords have in common? They’ve all been used by crypto-pilled associates at TradFi firms to pitch their bosses on the exciting upside of blockchain tech. This year, it seems, the executives are listening.

Institutions jumped into crypto more headlong than ever in 2024. Their moves are starting to bridge the gap between TradFi and DeFi. However, this article isn’t focused on why firms are building onchain. Instead, we are focusing on where these funds are choosing to build.

----------------------------

What’s Happening on Ethereum?
Ethereum is the world’s largest smart-contract blockchain network. It has secured over $90 billion in RWAs, including stablecoins. 2024 has been a big year for the adoption of non-stablecoin RWAs on Ethereum as well, with the network growing its onchain U.S. treasuries, bonds, and cash equivalents from $800 million to over $1 .5 billion and overall non-stablecoin RWA value to $2 .9 billion.

Some of the major players building on Ethereum this year include
Visa, BlackRock and FTI_US

Earlier this month, Visa announced that they are building the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP) on Ethereum. This is the company’s biggest step toward crypto adoption thus far. VTAP enables Visa to issue and manage fiat-backed tokens on Ethereum. It is intended to be a sandbox for participating financial institutional partners to create and experiment with fiat-backed tokens. They expect to begin piloting the platform with Spanish multinational bank BBVA in 2025. While the VTAP program is certainly an experiment, it gives credit to the thesis that TradFi will migrate its operations onto Ethereum over the coming decades.

----------------------------

Yet, the success of Ethereum’s competitors highlights a critical point: institutions are no longer bound to a single network. While Ethereum is foundational, blockchains like Solana and Stellar provide alternatives that are increasingly hard to ignore. However, they also present novel interoperability concerns.

Interoperability is central to the future of institutional blockchain adoption. As Visa states in their VTAP press release announcement, the largest benefits of building onchain include easy integration, programmability, and interoperability. Institutions that venture onto non-EVM chains like Solana or Stellar may face challenges in asset liquidity and protocol compatibility. This can lead to reliance on third-party services to bridge assets between chains, which introduces complexity and security risks. Ethereum’s widespread use means that staying within the EVM ecosystem—whether through Ethereum or Layer 2 solutions—remains the simplest and most secure option for institutions.

----------------------------

However, for Ethereum to maintain its lead in the race toward institutional adoption, it must continue to balance world-class security and stability with the performance and scalability that competing chains continue to push. The race to capture the attention of institutional finance will be won by the network that can not only meet today’s demands but also anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Ethereum is well-positioned for now, but staying on top will require constant evolution.

🚨 🇦🇪 The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has given its approval to the AED Stablecoin, which could become the first regulated stablecoin pegged to the dirham.

Once fully approved, it will serve as a local trading pair for cryptocurrencies and can be accepted by traders.

In April 2024 an elderly victim from the US was targeted by Indian call scammers posing as Coinbase support resulting in a large portion of their life savings stolen.

Pleased to share that I helped recover $275K which was recently seized and will be sent back to them.

Theft txn hash
30125031d32a3a2ec9a6963d218bf2494d4392d9444586061a97d84511479346

During my research I found $5M + stolen from other victims of this group which were laundered from Ethereum/Bitcoin to Tron via centralized exchanges before stablecoins were transferred to OTCs.

10 years ago, on October 6, 2014, the first stablecoin was launched.
Called Realcoin, the first tokens were issued on the Omni overlay of the Bitcoin network.

Now called #Tether (USDT), over 120 billion tokens are in circulation and the company generated more profits than BlackRock in 2023!

Tether generates its yield from U.S. Treasuries, which the company holds more of than some countries, such as Germany.

🇪🇺 Coinbase announces plans to delist all unauthorized stablecoins from its platform in the European Economic Area (EEA) by the end of December 2024.

Coinbase will provide an update on its plans next month, including users converting their stablecoins to EU-compliant versions such as USDC.

Currently, only USDC and EURC have achieved MiCA compliance, so there is a potential delisting of USDT by the end of 2024.

Indeed, Tether has not yet received authorization to issue $120 billion in USDT in Europe.

🚨 BBVA, Spain's second largest bank, plans to launch its own stablecoin in 2025, in cooperation with Visa.

It is currently in the "sandbox" phase of Visa's new project, with the goal of entering the prototype and real-world operation phase next year.

🚨 Robinhood and Revolut are considering launching their stablecoins.

The stablecoin market is currently $170 billion.

PayPal, one of the world’s largest financial platforms, continues its mission to deliver blockchain-based services to users and businesses alike.

On September 25, 2024, PayPal announced it would be enabling U.S. merchants to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency assets within their business accounts. The move is the latest in a slew of updates made by PayPal as the TradFi giant continues to embrace the cryptocurrency industry.

U.S. Businesses Can Now Store Funds Onchain
Following the successful launch of crypto services for individual users, PayPal remarked that businesses were eager to meet user’s growing demand for more comprehensive crypto services.

"Since we launched the ability for PayPal and Venmo consumers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency in their wallets, we have learned a lot about how they want to use their cryptocurrency… Business owners have increasingly expressed a desire for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers. We're excited to meet that demand by delivering this new offering, empowering them to engage with digital currencies effortlessly." - Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies, PayPal.

PayPal’s commitment to providing merchants with expanded crypto services and flexibility goes beyond buying and selling digital assets. Merchants can now withdraw cryptocurrencies to external onchain wallets.

While PayPal has stipulated that this feature will be limited to “eligible” wallets, the move also opens the door to more businesses becoming involved in DeFi. For example, businesses holding capital might be able to lend out assets in various onchain lending protocols, earning additional yield on a merchant’s treasury.

$PYUSD Solana Supply Down 40% Since ATH
Since launching on Solana on May 29, 2024, $PYUSD enjoyed meteoric growth. Spurred on by generous liquidity provision incentives, $PYUSD’s Solana-based supply surged to over 663.4M tokens based on Step Finance data. This eclipsed Ethereum’s $PYUSD supply, making Solana the unofficial home of PayPal’s crypto services.

However, as $PYUSD reward campaigns have slowed and market conditions improved, the supply of PayPal USD on Solana has declined. At its highest point on August 28, 2024, Solana hosted $PYUSD 65.79% supply dominance.

Based on DeFiLlama data, that figure has since fallen to just 50.4%, with PayPal USD’s Solana-based supply currently sitting at 354M.

It's unlikely that PayPal merchants based in the U.S. will rush to bring their stablecoin holdings onchain and deploy them in Solana DeFi protocols. However, the move highlights PayPal’s willingness to respond positively to customer feedback and integrate blockchain technology into its expansive product suite.

🚀 +93% in 3 months: why is aave outperforming the rest of the crypto market?

This success is linked to a renewed interest in #defi 🌐 , its dominance in the lending sector ($12.6 billion in TVL), and the fall of its competitor Curve Finance.

Its updates, such as the introduction of its stablecoin $GHO and its expansion to layer 2, have also increased its appeal.

I have a question for the #PERMABEARS who keep talking about a crash:

Are they in full stablecoins? Will they FOMO when we hit a new ATH?

Because listening to them, #Bitcoin goes to 40k, but when it pumps, they say they make gains. 🤡🤡 So I don't understand

Vitalik Buterin bullish on Celo? The eponymous token is gaining more than 20% after a statement 🚀

@VitalikButerin recently gave its official support to Celo, a future layer 2 of #Ethereum ⛓️ dedicated to mobile payments.

He notably highlighted that Celo has just overtaken the Tron network in terms of active addresses for the use of stablecoins.

🚨 📈 Société Générale deploys its stablecoin $EURCV on #Solana to take advantage of its speed and reduced costs.

Initially deployed on #Ethereum , EURCV had a limited start, CEO Jean-Marc Stenger emphasizes that #Solana will open new opportunities for decentralized finance.

Another step towards the integration of banks into the world of cryptocurrencies. 💶

$SOL #Stablecoin

Coins.ph, the biggest crypto exchange in the Philippines, announces the launch of $PHPC (Philipine Peso Stablecoin) on the Solana blockchain.

Societe Generale Group's Forge, a subsidiary of a major European bank, launches $EURCV stablecoin on Solana, leveraging its speed and cost-effectiveness.

SOLANA BREAKPOINT: The Biggest Announcements From Day One
Hopes were high for some big announcements, but even the most devout Solana maxi wasn’t ready for this.

Over 5,700 Solana fans, users, and bulls descended on day one of Singapore Breakpoint. The biggest conference event in Solana history, Breakpoint delivered a wrath of key updates, with crucial developments announced from both native teams and institutional players.

If you weren’t at Breakpoint, here’s what you need to know:

FIREDANCER LIVE ON TESTNET
Solana users and investors alike were delighted to see Kevin Bowers, Jump Crypto’s Chief Science Officer take the stage to deliver one of the network’s most eagerly awaited updates.

Firedancer, the novel validator client promising to bring unparalleled levels of scalability, decentralization, and security to Solana, is now live on testnet.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Bowers also took the opportunity to outline the development history of the client and its evolution from Frankendancer, an experimental synergy of existing software with Jump’s new codebase, to the optimized final Firedancer product.

To rounds of raucous applause from the Solana faithful, Bowers announced that the existing Frankendancer client is now live on the Solana mainnet.

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON BUILDING ON SOLANA
While existing SOL ETF applications find themselves unlikely to be approved in the short term, that doesn’t mean that TradFi giants aren’t eager to launch Solana-based products to their institutional clients.

Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest financial players boasting over $1 .3T in AUM (Assets Under Management) announced its intention to launch a mutual fund on the Solana blockchain.

CITIBANK EXPLORING SOLANA
Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, and VanEck aren’t the only Wall Street players with an eye on crypto’s most performant Layer-1.

Citibank, the fourth largest bank in the United States, shared that it was exploring Solana’s potential, suggesting that seamless money transfers and advanced smart contract composability present unique opportunities in the future.

JUPITER MAKES BIG MOVES
Traditional Finance may have dominated the headlines, but Solana-native DeFi teams also commanded their fair share of the spotlight.

Jupiter co-founder Siong presented an immense range of updates coming to Jupiter’s expansive ecosystem. Crucial announcements included a refreshed v2 perps platform, the reveal of the Ape Pro memecoin trading platform, further details surrounding the Jupiter mobile wallet, and Jupiter’s acquisition of the SolanaFM explorer.

SKY, FORMERLY MakerDAO, DEPLOYS ON SOLANA
MakerDAO, one of the crypto industry’s longest standing DeFi protocols, recently rebranded to SKY, migrating its iconic decentralized stablecoin from $DAI to $USDS . Building on top of the momentum achieved with the rebrand, SKY announced a proposal to leverage Wormhole’s cross-chain infrastructure to bridge $USDS to Solana.

Reinforcing SKY’s desire to be present on the Solana network, the protocol announced an rewards campaign to incentivise deeper liquidity on the network. According to SKY governance, the maximum distribution of weekly rewards is capped at 2M $SKY .

The move helps to bring greater stability to Solana DeFi by providing a more diversified range of stablecoin assets onchain.

Continuing the trend of Solana migration, the Huma Finance PayFi network also announced its intention to launch on the network.

Head of Visa Crypto Cuy sheffield says 65% of stablecoin transactions on solana are under $100 , and Ethereum is not cost-effective to be able to do lower value transactions frequently.

💶 Société Générale-FORGE announces the deployment of its euro stablecoin $EURCV , compliant with MiCA regulations, on the Solana network.

🚨 Revolut to launch its own stablecoin.

Revolut is looking to expand its crypto offerings by taking a compliance-focused approach to become a safe haven for the entire crypto community

🤝 TON Foundation collaborates with Curve Finance to incubate a new stablecoin swap project.

This collaboration will simplify stablecoin trading, increase liquidity, and improve the DeFi experience on TON.

Solana suggests using Grab at Breakpoint, which allows them to fund their Grab wallets (for transportation and meals) with stablecoins directly from solana wallets.

Circle launches USDC in Brazil and Mexico, enabling instant conversion from local currencies.

Circle is also the issuer of the $USDC stablecoin on Solana.

🧨💥 In Singapore, the number of stablecoin payments recorded by businesses has exploded since the beginning of the year! Adoption is going well in the city of the Merlion.

🇬🇧 English Supreme Court rules that Tether's stablecoin $USDT is considered property.

“USDT attracts property rights under English law.”
"It can be searched and can be held in trust in the same way as other property."

https://www.coindesk.com/p...

UK High Court Rules Tether's $USDT Stablecoin as Property, as Government Gears Up for New Crypto Legislation.

After the euphoric highs of Q2, fear and doubt have crept back into crypto markets in recent months.

Amidst the uncertainty Solana’s DeFi ecosystem has shed layers of TVL (Total Value Locked), with the majority of protocol’s losing between 13-18% in USD value on a monthly time frame.

However, despite the market-wide pullback, outperformers have emerged. Which protocols created a liquidity vacuum and expanded their TVL despite ailing markets?

NX FINANCE, LULO LEAD MONTHLY TVL GROWTH
Solana’s DeFi scene has enjoyed newfound momentum and attention throughout 2024. However, the last 30 days indicate a charge in sentiment, with the bulk of Solana protocols suffering significant drops in their TVL.

Despite challenging conditions, several outliers have outperformed the wider market and witnessed continued growth in the face of adversity.

Lending aggregator NX Finance led the charge, enjoying consistent growth in the face of difficult markets. Courtesy of its incentivized rewards program, NX Finance TVL rose 65% in the last 30 days, leading Solana’s top 50 DeFi applications by TVL.

Meanwhile, fellow lending aggregator Lulo Finance continued to rise through the ranks, securing over $30M in Directed Liquidity (DL). With over 92% of its DL, a similar metric similar to TVL, held in stablecoins, Lulo-managed value has increased by 32.27% in the last 30 days.

At first glance, DeFiLlama data suggests that Jupiter’s TVL has risen by 47.22% in the last 30 days. However, this increase is due to the popular analytics platform integrating $jupSOL into Jupiter’s total TVL on August 16, adding approximately $300M worth of funds to the platform.

According to Step Finance data, $jupSOL supply has risen 0.36% in the last 30 days. Coupled with the 2.22% decline in Jupiter perpetual TVL in the same time period, it can be concluded that Jupiter’s total TVL has remained relatively stable in the face of challenging market conditions.

Kamino TVL Climbs Despite Falling Prices
Kamino Finance has been one of Solana DeFi’s most solid performers throughout Q3’s volatility. While lending aggregators like NX Finance and Lulo predominantly hold stablecoins, making them more resilient to market downturn, Kamino accepts deposits from a wider range of more volatile assets.

Despite falling asset prices across the industry, Kamino has emerged as one of Solana’s standout DeFi protocols.

While $SOL price has dropped over 36% since its March 18 high of $202 , Kamino TVL has increased by 12% in USD terms. Denominated in SOL, Kamino TVL has risen by 76% in the same time frame.

JUPITER DOMINATES PERPETUAL TVL ACROSS THE INDUSTRY
Jupiter’s perpetual DEX platform shows no sign of relinquishing its iron grip on derivatives dominance. One of Solana’s largest DeFi protocols, Jupiter’s perpetual DEX is currently the largest onchain derivatives market in the crypto industry.

Boasting over $657M in TVL, Jupiter dominates perpetual market share. According to DeFiLlama data, the Solana-based platform currently accounts for 18.82% of onchain derivatives TVL across the industry.

While Jupiter boasts the highest TVL across all perpetual DEXes, its closest rival still witnesses higher trading volumes. During August, Hyperliquid handled $34 .6B in trading volume compared to Jupiter’s $15 .1B. It’s worth noting that Hyperliquid’s high volume could attributed to its points program, which is expected to influence token allocations ahead of the protocol’s upcoming airdrop

Prices may be down, but Grayscale's making bull market bets if you know where to look.

These are the assets that have caught the attention of Crypto's Wall Street whisperer 👇

========================================

When Grayscale announces a new Trust for a particular asset, the market often reacts with a mix of excitement and skepticism.

It's a bit like a double-edged sword: a signal of saturation for some and a beacon of hope for others.

Some might interpret the launch as a sign that the market for that asset is reaching saturation or at least limited upside potential in crypto terms.

On the one hand, it’s a stamp of approval from a major player in the crypto space. It can lend legitimacy to the asset, potentially attracting institutional investors, and, at the very least, boost media coverage.

Grayscale has been adding new investment products at a faster clip, showcasing their conviction that we’re in the middle innings of a crypto bull market fueled by a grand slam of bullish signals: #Bitcoin ETF inflows, the long-awaited $ETH ETF launch, increasing stablecoin adoption, and steady growth in TVL across DeFi.

As a quiet giant in the industry, investors continue to watch what Grayscale is backing and what that says about their impressions of which direction the industry is headed. What assets have caught their attention lately? Let's find out. 👇

----------------------------------------------------------

Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund (FIL, NEAR, RNDR, LPT, TAO)

Grayscale Bittensor Trust (TAO)
Bittensor envisions a world where AI isn't a tool in the hands of a few corporations but a resource democratized for all. It aims to create an "Internet of AI" where everyone can contribute and benefit from AI models. $TAO incentivizes participants to contribute to the network by providing rewards for tasks like validating models and running AI computations.

As the AI race among big tech companies heats up, Grayscale believes that Bittensor offers a compelling alternative approach towards AI development, one that encourages a wider range of participants and ideas.

Grayscale SUI Trust (SUI)
$Sui boasts a novel blockchain design that prioritizes scalability and user experience. It allows for parallel processing, tackling multiple transactions simultaneously.
SuiNetwork
's competitive edge comes down to its custom-built programming language, Sui Move, which streamlines smart contract development and execution.

As the need for blockspace and faster execution in crypto increases, Grayscale believes that Sui opens the door to a new wave of decentralized applications that were previously limited by existing blockchain infrastructure.

The Grayscale Effect
Overall, the impact of a Grayscale Trust launch is highly subjective to the specific asset. By no means does it signify that the asset is destined for greatness. Take the Grayscale Decentraland Trust (MANA), for instance.

The key takeaway is that Grayscale's bullish outlook on crypto is evident in its recent product launches. They believe we're currently in a bull market and are positioning themselves accordingly.

Analysis by arjunnchand

We are 180 days into a correction since we made an ATH in Bitcoin and market sentiment is worse than when BTC was at 15K.

Ethereum has lost nearly $250 billion in market cap over the summer, even with ETFs coming to market.

And what happened?

> Massive exits and sales by Grayscale.
> Massive MT.GOX distributions.
> Mass distributions from the United States.
> Germany selling +50,000 BTC.

And what is to come?

> US interest rate cuts.
> Gradual increase in global liquidity.
> United States elections.
> FTX Refunds (+$16B).

And all this with stablecoins reaching all-time highs.

Is this the end? Are we all going to die?

I don't believe it.

For me nothing has changed.

Nobody said the bull market was going to be easy.

The best, for me, is yet to come.

You already know what happened next, the times when the feeling was as shattered and terrifying as the one we are experiencing now.

The difficult moments are what separate babies with poop on their butts from legends.

Everyone is very pro, everyone is very cocky, very gangster and very brave until it is time to buy the dip when at all hours they say that we are going to visit lower areas and everyone is terrified and with their balls in their throat.

We've all heard "If you come down to X area I'm going to put my house in your house" then they come down and shit their pants and don't buy.

It seems like a meme, but it is not.

There is something that will never change.

> The vast majority of people will sell out of fear.
> The vast majority of people will buy out of euphoria.

And it is certainly the fastest way to lose money in this market.

Sorry, I didn't make up the rules of the game.

The road will be long and there will be monsters and corpses along the way, just try not to make it yours.

The bull market is not over.

They just want to steal your magic internet coins so that when they spend billions on marketing, they can buy them back at an exorbitant price.

Nothing has changed.

Patience, conviction, buy the dip & chill 🏝️

The Solana Foundation has announced up to $1M in grants for developers, founders, and policy experts building the Finternet—a global network for interoperable financial systems integrating stablecoins, stocks, NFTs, and more

🇺🇸 SEC warns #FTX against repaying creditors in stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies.

“The agency reserves the right to challenge transactions involving crypto assets” 💬