Posted on

Tether expands with a new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling

Tether: GBPT arrives, the stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling

Tether, the company behind USDT, has decided to create a new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling, in anticipation of a boom in the UK crypto market

Although USDT is the most widely used stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem, its market cap has declined since the shake-up caused by the collapse of Terra (LUNA). The market cap of USDT is 66 billion, but just behind it is USDC, with 55 billion and an upward parabolic trend. The solution of Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether? Expand into other markets! The new frontier for Tether is the UK, and GBPT is the new stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling and based on Ethereum. Will gbp on blockchain be an antidote against the bearish market?

A new stablecoin pegged to the pounds sterling for the UK market

GBPT is a stablecoin pegged to the pound sterling that will be released in early July by Tether. In addition to the primary stablecoin USDT, Tether already has other cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies. What are they pegged to? The Euro, Chinese yuan and Mexican peso. However, these cryptos in total have a very low market capitalisation, under $1 billion. Although these ‘minor’ stablecoins do not reach USDT levels, Tether has nevertheless decided to release the new GBPT stablecoin.

The motivation? According to Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Tether, the UK will be the next frontier of the crypto market. The pound is one of the most widely used fiat currencies in the world and the UK is a world economic power. What’s more, the UK parliament has announced that it is working on a series of laws and regulations that could foster the development of crypto technologies. “Tether is ready to work hand-in-hand with UK lawmakers towards this goal, and we are excited to continue the expansion of Tether-signed stablecoins,” Ardoino announced.

According to Tether, the launch of a stablecoin pegged to the pound will make the crypto market better, i.e. more dynamic, facilitating transactions not only in the UK but worldwide. The Bank of England is looking into the possibility of creating a CBDC of the pound, but some critics have blamed the bank’s slowness. Tether fits right into this market gap with its GBPT.

Will stablecoin pegged to the sterling help Tether?

The idea of a stablecoin pegged to sterling was born during a bearish market phase, with the intention of reviving the use of Tether’s signature stablecoin ecosystem. USDT reached a record market cap on the 11th of May, during the collapse of Terra (LUNA), surpassing $84 billion in capitalisation. On 28 June, after just under two months, USDT’s market cap stands at USD 66 billion. A drop of about 20%!

The causes of this decline are many. Besides the arrival of the bearish market, the very transparency of Tether has been called into question. According to some critics, in fact, the company’s reserves would not guarantee a 1:1 ratio with the USDTs currently circulating on the blockchain. Tether was quick to deny the allegations, releasing the numerous third-party audits confirming its reserves, but the rumours were enough to call into question the stablecoin’s primacy. “These unfounded rumours contribute to panic in the market, probably to take advantage of an already stressed market,” responded a Tether spokesperson, warning those holding USDT on their wallet.

Picking up the slack from USDT is first and foremost USDC, Circle’s stablecoin. Over the past month, USDC has increased its market cap by 4%. At the same time, a new algorithmic stablecoin, Tron’s USDD, has emerged, which has stolen percentage points from USDT by relying on those who still have faith in algorithmic stablecoins despite the Terra disaster.

Will the move to create a stablecoin pegged to sterling prove successful? According to Tether, the GBPT stablecoin will be released at the beginning of July on Ethereum, but it will take a few months to see if the stablecoin will prove equal to USDT or if GBPT will end up being used by a small niche.

Posted on

Solana launches a smartphone for crypto and blockchain

Solana’s new Smartphone: Saga, the Android crypto phone

Blockchain in the palm of your hand? Solana announces the development of a flagship Android smartphone integrated with crypto

Want to always have blockchain and crypto at your fingertips? Solana, in collaboration with OSOM, has announced a brand new Android smartphone with cutting-edge technical features, fully integrated with the crypto world. The mobile phone, called the Solana Saga, is designed to make access to Web3 simple and straightforward. The Solana Saga is a future-proof device, find out what the Solana smartphone, the Android mobile phone designed for crypto and Web3 enthusiasts, is all about!

An Android smartphone for crypto and Web3: this is what Solana Saga is and how it works

Did you buy a smartphone with 5G thinking it was state-of-the-art? Technology has just churned out something even more futuristic! In collaboration with Osom, Solana has announced Saga, a crypto- and Web3-proof Android smartphone integrated with blockchain and compatible with all decentralised applications. The manufacturing company, Osom, is a start-up created by some employees of the now defunct company Essential, which designed smartphones dedicated to privacy and security. Now they have decided to push the boundaries: here is Solana Saga!

The technical features of the Solana Saga are respectable and are no match for other top-of-the-range devices. The 6.67-inch OLED screen has a refresh rate of 120Hz, ensuring no blurring even in the most frantic videos. It also has 512 GB of memory, and 12 GB of RAM to run even the heaviest dApps. Highlights are the 50 MP main camera and the excellent Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen1 processor, which is the latest addition to the market and guarantees user privacy. In fact, thanks to the capabilities of this processor, Solana Saga is able to keep private keys and seed phrases safe, but at the same time make them interact with decentralised applications should the need arise. Solana works to ensure that your privacy is not compromised!

Solana also put another important building block on the theme of increasing the accessibility and usability of its network in March 2022, with the partnership between Dialect (Web3 messaging protocol) and Solana Mobile. The goal of the collaboration? To launch a Whatsapp-style, but decentralised, open source messaging application for the Solana Saga Android smartphone.

All this technological power will be used to make decentralised applications and the Web3 work stably and smoothly. Solana Saga  will be integrated with the Solana blockchain and all other realities of the new Internet, thanks also to the new open-source marketplace that will be installed on the device. Solana Mobile Stack replaces the Play Store (installed by default on Android smartphones), allowing developers to develop their own decentralised applications and publish them on the open-source marketplace. “The world needs hardware companies that focus on supporting Web3,” reported Jason Keats, CEO and founder of Osom. “Building the ecosystem of the future without being tied to the past is really exciting.”

Why buy a Web3 and crypto-proof smartphone? Solana’s founders answer

Is Solana’s smartphone, an Android phone integrated with crypto and Web3 really necessary? According to the founders of Solana, definitely yes! Indeed, they hope to be pioneers and lay the foundations for a revolution that is now imminent. “Almost 7 billion people use smartphones worldwide and more than 100 million of these people own digital assets, and these numbers will continue to grow,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the founders of Solana, confidently. ‘Solana Saga wants to create a standard for all hardware devices that interface with Web3’. Yakovenko’s words are clear: the question to ask is not whether a smartphone integrated with blockchain is useful, but when we will all get to have one in our pockets!

“We chose the name Saga because we believe the crypto story is still in its infancy,” said Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana. “This smartphone is a step forward in history, and we believe it is critical to improving the understanding and adoption of this new technology,” he continued. Thanks to Saga, understanding and using the blockchain will be as easy and intuitive as downloading an app from the Play Store or making a payment using your smartphone’s NFC.

Privacy and technological innovation: Solana Saga is an Android smartphone projected into the future and integrated with Web3 and crypto. It could be the first in a long line of next-generation mobile phones. Imagine transferring cryptocurrencies, paying for pizza and shopping online all from the same interface and in a completely decentralised manner. Does the future of blockchain pass through smartphones? We will find out in March 2023, when Solana Saga finally hits the market!

Solana Saga pre-sale 

It is already possible to pre-order the Solana smartphone. To do so, simply log on to this site, enter your details and pay a deposit of 10 percent of the final price of the smartphone, exactly $100. Solana has announced that pre-ordering the device will provide additional benefits, including limited edition NFTs, merchandising and other benefits that are as yet undisclosed. 

Users interested in obtaining one of the first examples of Solana’s Android smartphone were able to purchase an NFT called the ‘Saga Pass’, which grants them the right to be the first to receive the Saga, as well as the right to airdrop and participate in exclusive events. These NFTs went on sale on 31 October 2022. 

Posted on

Terra 2 is coming, find out how the new LUNA airdrop works

LUNA Airdrop 2.0: how it works and how to get it

It’s official: the new Terra 2 chain will be released on the 27th of May! Find out everything about the new chain wanted by Do Kwon and how the LUNA 2.0 airdrop works

Do Kwon’s proposal passed: a new Terra is on the way. With 66 percent of votes in favour, the community voted in favour of the creation of a new chain. The old LUNAs will be called LUNA Classic (LUNC) and the migration will take place on the 27th of May, through an airdrop that will try to give back to the LUNAtics what they deserve. Find out all about the release of Terra 2, how LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works, and how to get it!

What is LUNA 2.0, the new chain proposal from Do Kwon

After the collapse of LUNA and UST, the crypto community found itself in dire straits. Terra’s founder, Do Kwon, came up with a proposal to create a new chain from nothing. The proposal in question, published on Terra’s Agora, received 66% positive votes despite the fact that some members of the Terra community spoke out against the idea.

Despite criticism from some users, Do Kwon has found support from the majority of the community in creating a fork of Terra. Terra 2 will not exactly be a ‘hard fork’ similar to Ethereum’s actions after the 2017 attack. Instead of “resetting” the blockchain to a time before the collapse (7th of May, in this case), Do Kwon will create a new blockchain from scratch, but without the UST algorithmic stablecoin.

With this fork, Terra’s founder wants to recreate the blockchain by eliminating the weak point that led the old chain to collapse, namely UST. Terra 2 will become a strong DeFi ecosystem with all the dapps already ready to be implemented.

How LUNA 2.0’s airdrop works

The airdrop of the new LUNAs will be gradual and will mainly reward those who held LUNA and UST before the collapse. Before launching the new chain, the developers will take a snapshot (at 8:59pm UK time on Thursday 26 May) of all tokens in the old chain and then distribute the new LUNAs on the updated version. The new LUNAs received will automatically be staked.

Do Kwon’s plan is for the new chain to start from a ‘virgin’ state, i.e. block 0, with a circulating amount of tokens equal to 1 billion. How does the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 work? The new tokens will be distributed in this way:

–       35% of the initial tokens will be divided among all LUNA holders before the crash. This means that as much as 350 million of the new LUNAs will be reserved for LUNAtics who purchased the tokens before 7 May, and held them even during the crash. Wallets with less than 10,000 LUNAs will get 30 per cent of their share immediately, and 70 per cent will be returned gradually over two years. Whales, on the other hand, will have worse conditions, and will get all the LUNA they are entitled to over four years.

–       15% of the LUNAs will be reserved for those who held aUST (i.e. USTs locked on Anchor Protocol) before the collapse. In this case, however, whales will have a maximum of 500,000 LUNA, to give priority to small UST holders.

–       15% of the initial tokens of the new chain will be reserved for those who bought USTs after the 7 May collapse.

–       10% of the new LUNAs will go to those who bought LUNAs after the collapse, and will be returned gradually over a period of two years.

–       Finally, the remaining 30% will end up in the community pool, to support the effort of dapp developers and ensure that the new chain maintains its value as a DeFi ecosystem.

The system is quite complex but Do Kwon thinks this is the best way to compensate LUNAtics fairly and to recreate a functional and effective network in the DeFi landscape.

In the proposal, Terra’s founder writes that the LUNA airdrop will take into account all on-chain assets (including, for example, LUNAs in staking or those on some centralised exchanges), except for a few specific ones due to technical reasons. For example, USTs and LUNAs ‘transferred’ with a bridge to other blockchains will not be part of the airdrop unless they are returned to the original chain (e.g. Terra’s official wallet, Terra Station). LUNAs blocked in the most popular DeFi protocols will also be returned. For more information, please refer to Do Kwon’s official proposal, which is constantly being updated.

Criticisms for LUNA’s fork go beyond the community

The collapse of LUNA and UST has obviously divided the crypto community. Although many support Terra’s fork, not everyone believes that the airdrop of LUNA 2.0 is the best solution to repair the damage caused by the collapse. Criticism, especially on Twitter, abounds: but it is not only the users who oppose Do Kwon’s and the rest of the community’s decision.

Lido Finance, one of Ethereum’s most important liquid staking protocols, refused to support Terra 2.0. Lido’s DAO voted ‘no’ decisively, with 95 per cent voting. Less than 5% of the participants were in favour of bringing Lido Finance onto the new Terra chain.

Despite the fact that Lido Finance had a locked-in value of almost $10 billion on Terra before the collapse of LUNA and UST, the DAO practically rejected Do Kwon’s proposal. “We will think about it after the launch, first it is better to see if Terra 2.0 is a legitimate project and supported by the community. At the moment there are too many doubts about the new chain,’ wrote one of the users against Terra 2.0.

The 27th of May will be a date that will go down in history not only for Terra, but for the entire crypto world. Only one day to go until the decisive date: will airdrop be enough to win back the market’s favour?