Market Update: 21st February 2023

Week in Review

Conversation in crypto circles last week centered around BUSD – a US$16 billion stablecoin issued by Paxos, with Binance branding – being declared a security by the SEC, having allegedly been tipped off by competitor and USDC-issuer, Circle. Paxos was forced to cease the minting of BUSD and will cut ties with Binance, although it has stated it will vigorously counter the SEC’s lawsuit.

As debate over dollar-backed stablecoins rages, MakerDAO’s DAI, AAVE’s GHO and Curve’s crvUSD quietly contend for king of the hill status as DeFi’s stablecoin of choice, with the latter two edging closer to completion.

Meanwhile, Germany’s third largest public company, Siemens, has issued a digital bond worth €60 million on the Polygon network.

BTC is up 12.7% for the week and ETH is up 12.5%.

Industry Stories

• Japan to launch pilot program for digital yen in April, following global trend towards central bank digital currencies.
• YouTube taps Neal Mohan as new CEO, known for his Web3 expertise, as Susan Wojcicki steps down.
• Siemens AG issues €60M euro digital bond on Polygon blockchain in a first for German industry leader; learn more about it here.
• SEC charges Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon with securities fraud related to algorithmic stablecoin Terra USD and LUNA token.
• Paxos ready to face SEC enforcement action after receiving Wells Notice over Binance USD stablecoin.
• Coinbase defends staking services amid regulatory uncertainty following SEC action against Kraken.
• Web3 and crypto startups raise $185 million this week, with a focus on pre-seed and seed funding for infrastructure development.
• Matter Labs rebrands zkEVM and opens mainnet, allowing developers to test dapps ahead of public alpha release of zkSync Era.
• Curve community to vote on proposal for stablecoin pools with oracle price feeds.
• Circle filed complaint against Binance for mismanaging token reserves with NYDFS prior to regulator’s action against another stablecoin issuer.