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On June 18, Tether minted $1 billion worth of USDT on the Tron blockchain, according to on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence.  Historically, such minting events have coincided with short‑term surges in Bitcoin (BTC). Notably, on May  21, when Tether issued $2  billion USDT, the next day BTC broke its previous all‑time high, climbing past $111,000.  While minting alone doesn’t guarantee immediate impact, the available on-chain data reveals that major spikes in USDT supply often translate into large inflows to exchanges.  Bitcoin price after USDT mint. Source: @Lookonchain  How will the mint affect Bitcoin price Research suggests that Bitcoin often reacts positively in the short term following large Tether mints, particularly when on-chain alert accounts like Whale Alert publicly flag the transactions. An article by Dr. Aman Saggu in Blockchain Research Lab found that Bitcoin tends to rise 0.4–0.8% within 5 to 30 minutes after a USDT mint. The resp...

The company behind the largest stablecoin by market cap raked in substantial gains in the first quarter of 2025. In a statement issued following the publication of its Q1 2025 attestation, Tether says it generated over $1 billion in operating profit from traditional investments between January and March this year. The stablecoin issuer credits the impressive returns to the solid performance in its U.S. Treasury portfolio. Tether says gold also nearly offset the volatility in the crypto markets. The company’s Q1 2025 financial report shows that it has $98.5 billion in U.S. Treasury bills, around $6.3 billion in money market funds and $15 billion in overnight reverse purchase agreements. “In a quarter marked by market turbulence, Tether delivered record-breaking results that further underscore the company’s financial strength and growing global relevance. [Tether] reached an all-time high of total exposure in U.S. Treasuries approaching $120 billion, includin...

In response to Swan Bitcoin’s recent lawsuit, bitcoin mining firm Proton Management has claimed that Swan “does not have a mining business of its own,” effectively denying the legality of the suit. Last week, Swan Bitcoin filed a complaint in the Central District of California that Proton “hatched and executed a ‘rain and hellfire’ plan to steal Swan’s” mining business. It accuses several of its former consultants of misappropriating Swan’s intellectual property to “copy” its operations at Proton. However, in a written response filed on Monday, Proton claims that Swan didn’t have a mining business to copy in the first place . “Rather, as Swan admits in its complaint and publicly, what Swan has called its mining business is really just a separate entity called 2040 Energy, which is fully funded by Tether.” Swan Bitcoin lawsuit targets former executives, implicates Tether Read more: We asked Swan CE...

US citizens affected by Hamas’ attack on Israel have sued the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic for sponsoring, funding, and arming the terrorist group, along with Crypto exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). For years, Binance and CZ “provided a funding mechanism for Hamas and other terrorists,” a complaint filed on Wednesday claims, “and concealed vital information about this from US regulators and the public.” The plaintiffs in the case are US citizens who were murdered, injured, or taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. The landmark filing says it represents all thirty Americans who were murdered in the attacks and the ten citizens who were taken hostage. Binance and CZ’s guilty plea used to prove Hamas financing According to them, Binance “processed numerous transactions associated with Hamas and related Palestinian terrorist groups between 2017 and mid-2023, providing a clandestine financing tool t...

The market cap of Tether dropped amid the FTX fiasco while USD Coin supply increased by $2 billion. USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by the U.S.-based Circle Financials Ltd, is taking the lead over its top rival, Tether (USDT), when it comes to institutional adoption, according to on-chain data. USDC daily transfer volumes are higher The market capitalization of USDC tokens in circulation comes to be around $44 billion versus USDT’s $65.42 billion. However, USDC’s daily transfer value on the Ethereum blockchain has been consistently higher than USDT throughout 2022, data from Glassnode shows. For instance, as of Nov. 22, the USDC daily transfer was around $14 billion compared to USDT’s $5 billion. USDC vs. USDT daily transfer volume. Source: Glassnode In other words, USDC users engage in relatively higher capital transfers compared to USDT users, suggesting that USDC is increasingly the stablecoin of choice among high net-worth entities including institutional whales, hedge funds...

Authorities in Poland and the US have taken down a ‘bulletproof’ hosting provider called Lolek, seized its servers, and arrested five individuals allegedly behind the operation that allowed Netwalker ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes to occur.  A ‘bulletproof’ hosting provider like Lolek provides secure web hosting for nefarious purposes like ransomware , brute-force attacks, and phishing. It claimed to be a “100% privacy hosting” platform that didn’t log any activity that could be used to identify its users. “Everything except child porn” was allowed, Lolek advertised. Europol announced last week that the Polish Central Cybercrime Bureau arrested five administrators and seized its servers following a “complex investigation supported by Europol and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).” The platform’s site lolekhosted.net was seized by the FBI and IRS. “This domain has been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service — Crimin...

While industry giants like Binance hire and lay off thousands of people, other crypto heavy-weights like Tether currently only have 60 employees. Despite several high-profile cryptocurrency implosions , the number of people working in the industry has soared over the past four years. According to findings by the crypto research startup K33, the number of crypto-related employees has surged nearly 160% since 2019. In a report titled “The Emerging Crypto Industry,” K33 estimated that the total headcount of people working in crypto as of 2023 amounted to nearly 190,000 persons. The estimations also suggested that the number of such professionals stood at just around 73,000 people in 2019. According to the data, the crypto industry peaked in terms of total staff numbers in 2021 at more than 211,000 professionals. The growth came alongside Bitcoin’s (BTC) all-time high price of $68,000 that was recorded in November 2021. Cryptocurrency employment by years. Source: K33 Although crypto-focu...