@eriksmithcfp

Top 15 blockchains/protocols ranked by fees generated over the last week

@WatcherGuru
JUST IN: Elon Musk says X will "never" launch a crypto token

Americans owe a record $1 trillion in credit card debt

Credit card debt hit $1 trillion for the first time on record, according to new data, a troubling development as interest rates and delinquencies also rise.
 
Total balances on credit cards and other revolving accounts reached $1 trillion the week of July 26, up from $998 billion the prior week, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported Friday.
 
That’s the highest level on record and $193.4 billion more than the start of the year and $264 billion above the $736 billion in April 2021, the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic.

"Consumers are going to have to resume their payments of federal student loans soon," VantageScore President and CEO Silvio Tavares told Yahoo Finance. "The problem is that if they haven't had to pay a loan for three years, a lot of people don’t have that money in their budget."

Japanese giant Nomura has received an operating license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) for its digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital Middle East. The license will allow it to offer broker-dealer and investment services, as well as virtual asset management in the emirate.

Additionally, the permit allows the firm to conduct trading and asset management operations in the coming months, including over-the-counter services and a “range of digital asset investment products and solutions.”

@CoingraphNews
 
JUST IN: #Valkyrie aims to convert its Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF) into a Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF.

@adamscochran

So why is Tether selling off?

Likely Huobi insolvency.

-Binance started selling off USDT in bulk.
-We found out that Huobi execs (and Tron personnel questioned by police)
-This is not long after Sun's stUSDT launch
-And weird balance shifts at Huobi in the last month

Just like with FTT Binance is often the first to know about risky assets or issues within the industry due to its scales and connections.

And if we look at the time stamps of Friday's rapid sell off of USDT, it's after the time Huobi employees would have been questioned.

And its after weeks of steady USDT decline in Huobi

And after Sun launched "stUSDT" which is USDT he claims is sitting in government bonds gaining a 4.29% yield.

His website claims there are 351,380 stakers but...

Tron's own chain shows that 98% of the token is held by Sun or Huobi directly; and when you "stake" USDT into stUSDT it gets swept into a Huobi deposit address.

If stUSDT was real, we'd expect then $500M of redemptions from Huobi addresses on Tron, into redeemed Tether so they can buy bonds for yield.

But no such redemptions exist. The mint proxy sends to the main address:

Which in turn sends it to other addresses which are all either Sun, Huobi or Sun's Binance address.

But more importantly, a ton of it seems to go into Justin's own defi positions like JustLend.

This means across USDT and USDC combined, Huobi only holds $90M of assets.

But Huobi's own "Merkle Tree Audit" still lists that Huobi users have $630M of USDT held and a wallet balance of $631M USDT...

Of course this stopped updateing last month.

So users *think* they have balances of $631M in Huobi, but there is only $90M there.

Users think they hold 141,000 ETH on Huobi and instead Sun holds about half that total balance and its all in stETH.

So I don't think Binance is selling their Tether for two reasons:

1) They want to topple USDT to push stables they can control and gain from.

2) They realize Sun doesn't have the USDT he claims to and if users find out they might mass dump to escape his exchange.

Even when you add up the money that Sun has funneled from Huobi into his defi apps - he only seems to have about half the total obligations for Huobi.

The only asset they are really healthy in is BTC.

Just like he did with Poloniex, Sun has been using Huobi as a personal piggy bank to earn from user deposits - and he can't honor the balances there on ETH or USDT if users try and withdraw or sell in bulk.

When Binance heard that Huobi/Tron employees were being investigated in relation to actions at Huobi, they started slamming the 3CRV USDT sell into DAI to mitigate their risk.

Because Huobi is deeply insolvent.

@adamscochran
 
Huobi's current total balance is $2.5B
 
of which $662M is Tron,  
$500M is HT,  
$884M is BTC (which is supposed to also cover the $3B in BTC issued on Tron)
$168M is HBTC
 
This leaves $286M in other assets.
 

So even all the other liquid assets on the exchange in total, are less than 1/3rd of the reported amount of USDT obligations.
 

FreshSupplyCoAu, a pioneering player in the realm of digital innovation, has taken a significant step forward by seamlessly integrating Hedera into its Continuity API, as announced by the HBAR Foundation on Twitter. This dynamic fusion links the Hedera network with the conventional banking system and amplifies its reach by integrating with the Mastercard Network.
 
The integration prepares users for access to Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) and other future projects from Hedera Foundation, such as their cutting-edge Web3 and digital asset solutions. This move is more than just a technological advancement; it’s a strategic step toward improving Hedera’s usability and interoperability.

Kia and Hyundai, two of the world’s largest car manufacturers, turned to Hedera’s blockchain to implement the Supplier CO2 Emission Monitoring System (SCEMS). In an official blog post about the new collaboration, Hedera’s representatives explained that data accuracy, interoperability, and security were the main priorities.

PayPal Launches a Stablecoin in Latest Crypto Payments Push
PayPal USD will be pegged to dollar, issued by Paxos Trust
Stablecoins have yet to take off in consumer-payment sector

PYUSD will be able to: 

•Transfer PayPal USD between PayPal and compatible external wallets  
•Send person-to-person payments using PYUSD 
•Fund purchases with PayPal USD by selecting it at checkout2 
•Convert any of PayPal's supported cryptocurrencies to and from PayPal USD

@0xCygaar

So the PayPal stablecoin contract:
- Is written in an extremely old version of Solidity
- Allows the owner to pause all transfers
- Allows the owner to freeze addresses to prevent actions
- Allows admins to increase the total supply at will

Centralized, but transparent at least.

@lemiscate
 
Simple #Frenchchart to supercharge the $DAI yield
 
deposit DAI in Aave -> 7.24% APY
Borrow GHO -> 1.06% APR (bc cost of debt < capital yield you can borrow max at 77%)
use GHO to LP on balancer -> 11.24% APY
 
have fun while it last.