News for Crypto Tether and Alameda Research

[ad_1]

Recently, important news surrounds the crypto Tether, the stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. Specifically, the Alameda wallet was discovered to be exchanging ERC-20 bits for Ether (ETH)/Tether (USDT), so both ETH and USDT were routed through instant exchanges and mixers.

Additionally, crypto wallets associated with bankrupt FTX subsidiary Alameda Research were seen moving funds just days after former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released in a $250 bailout. millions of dollars.

All the secrets behind Alameda: not just Tether crypto

The transfer of funds from Alameda wallets has aroused the curiosity of the community, but more importantly the manner in which these funds have been transferred has caught the attention of experts. In fact, as already predicted, more than anything else, it raises suspicions about how Alameda traded chunks of ERC-20, among other things, with crypto Tether (USDT).

The suspicious news is also reported by ErgoBTC’s Twitter account, which reads:

Alameda ETH addresses are digging through the couch for spare currency and swapping ERC20 bits for ETH/USDT.

ETH and USDT were then funneled through instant exchanges.

Rings some major alarm bells…https://t.co/GRVtChDL9rhttps://t.co/LJBi7cuFZLhttps://t.co/nxcXWgm5VO pic.twitter.com/AqcgxVRoMr

— Ergo (@ErgoBTC) December 28, 2022

For example, a wallet address starting with 0x64e9 received over 600 ETH from Alameda-owned wallets, part of it was exchanged to USDT while the other part of the transaction was sent to ChangeNow.

On-chain analyst ZachXBT noted that the Alameda Wallet is ultimately exchanging funds for Bitcoin (BTC) using decentralized exchanges such as FixedFloat and ChangeNow. It should be noted that these platforms are often used by hackers and exploiters to hide their transaction paths.

Several assumptions about Bankman-Fried and FTX

The endless FTX saga sees a new twist every day. Concretely, the latest transfer of funds to recover all that remains in its crypto wallets is proving troubling for the community.

Indeed, at first many had speculated that the way these funds were exchanged resembled an exploitative one. Now that Bankman-Fried’s criminal past has been exposed, many believe that getting rid of whatever remains in those wallets might be an inside job.

While others questioned the terms of the bail and asked why SBF had internet access. One user in particular wrote that the former CEO was desperately trying to funnel money because his bail condition did not include access to a computer/internet.

In any case, the continued movement of funds from Alameda wallets coincided with Bankman Fried’s release on bail, as soon after FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, exchange wallets were hacked into millions. of dollars.

In fact, the US Department of Justice is currently investigating the $352 million FTX exploit that occurred immediately after the bankruptcy filing.

More crypto news Tether: Japan lifts stablecoin ban

Another news of the last hours concerning the crypto Tether looks back on the situation in Japan. In fact, Japan itself has apparently lifted its ban on using foreign stablecoins for 2023.

Currently, none of the 31 exchanges registered with the Financial Services Agency of Japan offer trading in foreign-issued stablecoins such as USDT or USDC.

So, although Japanese regulators are reconsidering certain restrictions on the use of stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC), it seems that the Japanese FSA will soon lift the ban on the national distribution of stablecoins issued in the United States. ‘foreigner.

Therefore, the new stablecoin regulations in Japan will once again allow local exchanges to use this type of asset. Specifically, a report published by the Nikkei news portal states:

“If stablecoin payments spread, international remittances could become faster and cheaper.”

However, allowing stablecoins to be distributed in Japan will require stricter anti-money laundering controls, the FSA pointed out. As previously reported, in June 2022, the Japanese parliament passed a bill to ban the issuance of stablecoins by non-bank institutions.

This had a significant impact on Japanese crypto companies, as currently no local exchanges provide stablecoin trading such as USDT or USDC. Moreover, according to official data, none of the 31 Japanese exchanges registered with the FSA, including companies such as BitFlyer or Coincheck, offered any type of stablecoin as of November 30, 2022.

BitFlyer, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, currently only offers five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) .

Recently, Japanese authorities have developed a more permissive regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency sector. On December 15, the tax committee of the Liberal Democratic Party, currently in power in Japan, approved a proposal that removes the requirement for crypto companies to pay a tax on the issuance of tokens.

Tether will reduce collateralized loans to zero to counter FUD in 2023

Tether has pledged to end the practice of lending funds from its reserves, saying this is crucial to restoring trust in the cryptocurrency market. Over the past few weeks, stablecoin issuer Tether has addressed the recent FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) shared by mainstream media regarding its secured loans, as well as other rumors.

Tether thus reiterated that its secured loans are over-collateralized and backed by extremely liquid assets, further adding that the company will reset these loans to zero in 2023.

Tether’s secured loans work similarly to private banks lending to customers using collateral, the company explained. However, unlike banks that operate on fractional reserves, Tether said its loans are 100% collateralized.

So the decision likely comes in response to a Wall Street Journal article from early December that reported how risky these loans were, arguing that the company may not have enough cash to pay repayments in a crisis.

Either way, Tether is currently the largest issuer of stablecoins, with 65.8 billion USDT in circulation. According to CoinGecko, it has a market share of 46.6%.

[ad_2]