GM friends.
Crypto prices might be in the suck, but that’s not stopping a duo of American companies from teaming up for a freer financial future.
So pour your morning cup black, the way Uncle Sam does. Here’s your mid-week crypto update. ☕️📰
Here’s what’s in today’s issue:
- David & Sam share their thoughts on Coinbase and Circle teaming up, crypto whales making moves, Mantle making a big LSD bet, Thailand’s new Prime Minister is a crypto bro, the SEC appealing the Ripple decision, the Grayscale spot BTC ETF wait, Friend.tech, Kraken launching support for PYUSD & Yuga Labs leaving OpenSea.
- This Week On Chain.
- Rekt Capital has the latest technical analysis for you on the market.
- This week’s trending coins by Rebecca
- Erik has a report for you on Polygon’s POL: the Multi-Tool of Tokens.
- Defi Dad has a tutorial for you on how to earn up to 16% APR with ETH, WBTC, ARB, and more on GMX V2 LPs.
- Jesse has a ton of hot new airdrops for you.
For any crypto related questions please comment on the website.
The News Now
Coinbase and Circle Making Moves Together
Big news coming from Coinbase and Circle, with implications that will likely reverberate within the crypto industry for years to come.
In a recent joint-released blog post, the two U.S. power-house companies have made three announcements:
1. Coinbase Purchases Equity Stake in Circle
First, the two companies have deepened their partnership ties together with Coinbase purchasing an equity stake in Circle. This means Coinbase now has a direct financial interest in USDC.
This is interesting, given Coinbase’s historically neutral role in facilitating stablecoin transactions from an array of issuers on its exchange and new layer-two blockchain, Base.
Neither company has yet disclosed the size of Coinbase’s stake. However, details of the companies’ new revenue sharing agreement suggest it’s quite large.
Under the new agreement, the interest income from USDC reserves held on each platform will go to the platform’s owner, respectively. And the interest generated from USDC reserves that’s disbursed outside either platform (out in the broader crypto ecosystem) will be split 50/50 between the two companies.
The news of Coinbase’s equity stake, and details of their revenue sharing agreement with Circle, further confirm how profitable the stablecoin business has become in the current high interest rate era.
The cash-cow that is stablecoin reserves via U.S. treasuries is the underlying thread connecting the Coinbase and Circle “merger” to PayPal’s PYUSD play to Tether’s record profits.
2. Circle Taking Full Governance Responsibilities Over USDC
Second, USDC’s governance organization, known as Centre Consortium, is being dissolved, with full governance responsibilities going back in-house to Circle.
Centre Consortium was a joint, stand-alone governance structure for USDC, with responsibilities split between Circle and Coinbase. But that’s no more.
According to the companies, the reason for the change is because “growing regulatory clarity for stablecoins” makes a separate governance organization no longer necessary.
Judging their actions and words, it’s clear that Coinbase and Circle believe positive stablecoin regulations are likely coming to the…
