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This Week on Crypto Twitter: PayPal Announces Stablecoin While SEC Saves Face in Ripple Lawsuit
Undoubtedly, the talk of Cryptoville this week was PayPal’s announcement that it would be releasing an Ethereum-based dollar-pegged stablecoin called PayPal USD (PYUSD) as a native payment method integrated into the platform.
The fact that an American payments giant like PayPal is openly embracing a technology that is still unregulated was taken as a bullish sign among crypto fans–the market response was cautiously optimistic, breaking six weeks of inertia.
Crypto Twitter was ablaze with reactions to the news. TRON founder Justin Sun expressed some interest in hosting the coin on his blockchain.
I cordially invite PayPal to consider issuing PYUSD on #TRON, which is Fast, secure, and cost-effective with 12 billion USD daily transactions. Mutual benefits await in the digital payment landscape. Let’s collaborate for a thriving ecosystem! 🙏
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) August 7, 2023
Chinese blockchain journalist Colin Wu disseminated news that the Seychelles-based Huobi exchange is an early supporter of the project.
Huobi announced that it has become the first exchange in the industry to support the launch of PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin, and has given the PYUSD/USDT trading pair permanent zero fees. Trading will be opened when liquidity is complete. Previously, Justin Sun also invited PYUSD to…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 8, 2023
There was some concern over the smart contract functions of the new token, but Carl Vogel, a partner at crypto VC firm 6MV, helped to allay any fears by explaining just how routine PayPal’s new offering is.
Of course #PYUSD has ability to “freeze & seize” assets – this is consistent with USDC, BUSD and event USDT. It’s a core requirement for centralized issuers.
Anyone tweeting as if it’s “surprising” in some way is click-baiting you for a reaction
— Crypto Carl (@CarlKVogel) August 8, 2023
The news put stablecoins firmly in the spotlight. Perhaps it even moved the hand of the Federal Reserve, which later in the week issued a statement announcing incoming guidance for chartered banks dealing with dollar-pegged stablecoins. Meanwhile, a clip of Joe Rogan and Post Malone discussing centrally-issued stablecoins made the rounds.
NEW – Worlds biggest podcaster Joe Rogan discusses with rapper Post Malone how a CBDC would be “game over.”
The mainstream is waking up. pic.twitter.com/XVmI7zM8vj
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 9, 2023
In other news, on Monday an analyst at crypto metrics platform Glassnode announced that Bitcoin has hit an all-time high of sorts. A staggering three quarters of the circulating supply is currently being HODLed!
New All-time-high for #Bitcoin Long-Term Holder supply 🔵, now at 14.59M $BTC (75% of circulating).
A suite of essential Long/Short-Term Holder tools are available for Advanced @glassnode members to track HODLers vs Speculators in this dashboard 👇https://t.co/ZyvUI9zL12 pic.twitter.com/83sLGQbtT5
— _Checkɱate 🔑⚡🌋☢️🛢️ (@_Checkmatey_) August 7, 2023
Scimitar Capital analyst Alex, who tweets under the handle @thiccythot_, wrote an interesting and succinct thread on the risks of DeFi loans to third-world enterprises.
they received 11.70% APY for this 2y loan back in Oct ’21
the 2y is currently trading at 4.77% so the current premium to the risk free rate is pretty bad
Tugende completely disregarded the terms of their loan by lending 1.9m to another company
— thiccy (@thiccythot_) August 8, 2023
On Wednesday, a crypto law news account presented the facts regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ongoing lawsuit against XRP progenitor Ripple.
#FactCheck on pre-trial schedule issued today by Judge Torres (1/2)
– @Ripple is NOT “going on trial”
– Judge Torres’ ruling that the XRP token is not a security is NOT going to trial
– The trial will NOT decide matters of law, only one narrow set of facts in dispute
— CryptoLaw (@CryptoLawUS) August 9, 2023
The following day, FOX journalist Eleanor Terrett broke the news that the SEC is appealing Judge Torres’s landmark ruling that XRP was not a security by definition, but could be presented as one depending on how it’s sold. Her verdict put the SEC on the backfoot by contradicting its claim that XRP offerings to retail customers via exchanges constitute securities offerings.
🚨BREAKING: The @SECGov has filed a letter of intent to request an interlocutory appeal to Judge Torres’s July 13th summary judgment in the @SECGov vs. @Ripple case.
Full letter below and story developing. 👇🏼https://t.co/vzPfdyGeih
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) August 9, 2023
Crypto exchange Gemini came out in full support of XRP that day and announced that it is relisting the token.
Xcited to announce $XRP is now available for trading on Gemini. pic.twitter.com/E9Xiv8BTo3
— Gemini (@Gemini) August 10, 2023
Solana on Wednesday announced that it is lowering the price of its crypto-integrated smartphone, the Saga. The Saga has the functionality of a smartphone, but it also enables users to seamlessly interact with the Solana blockchain through dApps—applications that utilize blockchain technology. This is a decent idea for onboarding the less crypto-savvy.
In April, we introduced Saga with a clear vision: to put web3 at your fingertips. We continue to work to bring more people into the ecosystem and drive web3’s mobile future. Today, we are reducing the price of Saga to $599.
Over the past four months, Saga users embraced the… pic.twitter.com/qpC1BHiqZ7
— Solana Mobile 🌱 (@solanamobile) August 9, 2023
Crypto investor Ryan Adams that day noted how much of an Ethereum gas burner OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s new blockchain-based identity protocol Worldcoin is.
The Worldcoin authority that submits zk proofs of eyeball scans spent $500k in gas over 40 days.
$4.5 million annual in gas fees.
Companies will need to hoard ETH the same way they hoard other essential commodities.
Ethereum blockspace is the new oil. pic.twitter.com/vdudW2JmJA
— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) August 9, 2023
Bloomberg ETF experts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffert say the road to Ethereum Futures ETFs appears to be clearer than ever before after the latest round of applications. Last week, Seyffert counted thirteen applications in the space of a few days.
In the past the SEC has told Ether Futures ETF filers to withdraw 5-6 days after the first filing hit. We are now on Day 13 and no withdrawals. Not home free yet but very good sign. As we predicted these will likely hit market in mid-October. https://t.co/22WM1HghEp
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 10, 2023
Balchunas also this week noted the high performance of crypto-related equity ETFs this year.
Every single one of the Top 15 best performing equity ETFs this year is crypto-related. $WGMI leading way w +227%. Finally attracting flows too, altho pretty modest considering these perf numbers. This is part of our monthly Crypto ETF Report via @JSeyff & @SirYappityyapp pic.twitter.com/iPIHhH82Jr
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 10, 2023
Crypto-friendly U.S. bank Custodia announced its launch on Friday. Custodia touts itself as “a compliant bridge between digital assets and the U.S. dollar payments system, and a custodian of digital assets that can meet the strictest level of institutional custody standards.”
1/ @CustodiaBank is live!
Last month, we began to serve external customers. For helping us reach this milestone, special thanks go to our team, our investors and all our partners–especially in the face of regulatory pressure on the #digitalasset industry. pic.twitter.com/y7RKUYyaaM
— Custodia Bank ™ (@custodiabank) August 11, 2023
Finally, here’s footage of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried nervously walking into the courthouse where he was later sent to jail for witness tampering. We’ve already covered reactions to it in a whole other Crypto Twitter roundup!
SBF just arrived to court – a judge could send him to jail this afternoon over witness tampering. Here’s a primer ahead of the hearing: https://t.co/7xA205agrD w/ @DawnGiel https://t.co/tb29du8WGY pic.twitter.com/shdjrbPeTG
— MacKenzie Sigalos (@KenzieSigalos) August 11, 2023
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