The cryptocurrency sector has grown anxious over a market reliance on controversial “stablecoin” Tether (USDT), after its value dropped well below its supposedly pegged price of $1.
In fact, the market is so concerned with the risks associated with USDT that a “Tether premium” has formed on the cryptocurrency exchanges still using it.
Stablecoins like USDT are supposed to be equally valued and completely interchangable with the US dollar.
But as the value of USDT has become increasingly unreliable, concerned community members have built a handy website to track this discrepancy, which it represents as a “risk premium”.
It automatically tracks major cryptocurrency exchanges and details the average price of Bitcoin on each type of platform: exchanges using USDT as their base currency, and exchanges using the US dollar.
It gives us a solid gauge of just how “Tethered” the cryptocurrency market is. After all, in a ‘perfect’ world, where one Tether is equal to one US dollar, there would be little-to-no difference in Bitcoin price between cryptocurrency exchanges, regardless of whether or not they rely on USDT.
Customers buying one Bitcoin with USDT currently pay hundreds of Tethers more than if they were to pay with US dollars.
The Tether premium
In the absence of legitimate banking partners, major cryptocurrency exchanges have used USDT as a replacement for the US dollar.
Each Tether is meant to be equal to one US dollar, but it isn’t. Over the past week, the value of Tethers has dropped significantly, at times reaching well below $0.95.
It seems the invisible hand of the market has decided that the slow devaluation of USDT, fuelled by growing community distrust of unregulated stablecoins, presents a risk for the cryptocurrency exchanges that still use it.
This risk is being passed onto the customer still using USDT as a “Tether premium.”
In fact, USDT users are currently paying (on average) five percent more Tethers than US dollars for the same amount of Bitcoin.
While the five percent premium does not apply to the value of the total sum of Tethers paid, this metric does do a great job of showing how poorly USDT performs as a stablecoin.
Remember: the higher the “risk premium” – the further away Tethers are from their intended value.
In any event, stablecoins are a relatively new experiment, and nobody really knows if the Tether premium will increase, stabilize, or disappear.
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EOS devs warn of yet another fake cryptocurrency wallet on Google Play
Another day, another fake cryptocurrency app on Google Play.
A group of Brazilian EOS developers, called EOS RIO, has warned users someone is trying to spread a fake version of its cryptocurrency wallet app on Google Play.
While the app poses as the real thing (and claims to have been developed by “EOSRIO”), EOS RIO has issued a statement to clarify that its official app is yet to make its way to the Play store.
EOS RIO claims to have taken the appropriate steps to have the app removed from the Play Store. Hopefully, this will prevent users from having their cryptocurrency potentially stolen.
It remains unclear how many times the fake app was downloaded, but it appears it has been removed from Google Play (or at least it doesn’t appear on the Dutch version of the Play Store). In any case, you might want to avoid any SimplEOS wallets on Google Play for the time being.
Typically, fake wallet apps seek to steal users’ credentials in attempts to pilfer their cryptocurrency. Such malware usually targets sensitive data like your username, password, and even your private key.
In a similar case, YouTube personalities, the Hodgetwins , had over $8,000 worth of cryptocurrency stolen from them after using a third-party EOS wallet found on the Apple App Store. Shortly after the story picked up momentum, Apple quietly removed the suspicious wallet from the platform.
To keep your devices secure, make sure to download software only from trusted developers – and always check check what reviews users have left, they usually warn if apps should be avoided.
Retired Dogecoin CEO Elon Musk trolls Ethereum and its co-founder Vitalik Buterin
Elon Musk has been trolling the Ethereum cryptocurrency and its co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Twitter.
The Tesla founder simply tweeted the word “Ethereum” early this morning, but took it back shortly after (hehe) .
In response, Vitalik invited Musk to an Ethereum developers conference in October, scheduled for somewhere in east Asia .
Musk told Buterin to “[s]top giving away free ETH,” an obvious reference to the cryptocurrency giveaways scams that have plagued Twitter for years, and often involve hacked verified accounts posing as Musk.
One could also interpret Musk’s crypto-fuelled shitposting to be in the same vein as the infamous “ taking Tesla public at $420 tweet ,” which he later claimed was just a fun way to impress his girlfriend and wasn’t totally serious.
Last week, Musk settled with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the fiasco, which had already led him to resign from his position as Tesla chairman.
The agreement reportedly requires Musk to acquire approval from “an experienced securities lawyer” employed by Tesla before publishing communication related to the company in any format, including tweets.
In 2018, Musk confirmed he indeed holds some Bitcoin , but not all that much. He still has the 0.25 BTC a friend sent to him years ago, apparently. He even said Bitcoin is “brilliant.”
Musk also jokingly claimed to be the CEO of the semi-serious Dogecoin cryptocurrency earlier this month. That didn’t last long, though. He “retired” shortly after the silly “announcement.”
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