Weekly Stable

The Weekly Stable (Vol 5)

Hi stable subscribers,

In anticipation of Stablecon in May, we're partnering with Will White, formerly of WalletConnect and Monzo, to host a monthly invite-only salon to meet up and discuss the fast-growing stablecoin ecosystem.

We're starting with our first salon in NYC on March 5th, but will add panels and guest speakers to future meetups. Should we expand to other cities? Reach out and let us know.

One of the most frequent complaints about crypto generally – one which trickles into the stablecoin discussion – is that there are no real use-cases. Limited data make it hard to understand why stablecoin volumes sit in wallets: are these coins being used just for crypto trading and speculation ("not a real use case"), or as a store of value or a medium of exchange for real goods and services?

I'll use this newsletter to start profiling some real examples of companies leveraging stablecoins for financial use cases.

This week, two of those examples come from infrastructure provider Zero Hash.* Zero Hash works with with Félix Pago in Mexico to lower remittances costs from ~6.65% to $2.99 per transaction, and lower remittance latencies from 1-5 days to real-time. Zero Hash also partners with payment facilitator Stripe and payroll provider Remote to enable lower-cost international payouts to teams of distributed contractors.

Please enjoy another week of stablecoin news below.

(And find us online at @thestablecon and linkedin/stablecon)

💡

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🚀 Product Launches

Reeve Collins, a co-founder of Tether, introduced a new stablecoin known as Pi Protocol, designed to provide holders with yield derived from tokenized real-world assets.

💸 Fundraises

Stablecoin company Plasma secured $24 million in funding to develop and launch its own blockchain, which is intended to attract stablecoin users by offering faster zero-fee Tether transactions.

📰 Other News

Standard Chartered partnered with Singapore's StraitsX to enhance the reserve management of StraitsX's stablecoins, XUSD and XSGD. The bank will provide cash management and custody services for the reserve assets backing these stablecoins. Meanwhile, StanChart's Hong Kong division, with Animoca Brands and HKT, formed a joint venture to apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to issue a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin.

The Wyoming Stable Token Commission is getting ready to launch the state's own stablecoin as a private entity for public benefit.

Robinhood – which recently launched its own stablecoin network – reported a 700% year-over-year increase in Q4 cryptocurrency revenue, contributing to total revenue of $1.01 billion.

Tether submitted a bid to acquire a majority stake in Adecoagro, an agro industrial company that produces and manufactures food and renewable energy, to expand Tether's influence in the agricultural sector. The stablecoin issuer also submitted a bid to acquire part of soccer club Juventus.

Rise,* a stablecoin payroll platform, passed $500 million in total payroll volume, underscoring the company's rapid growth.