Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

blockworks.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 376 posts

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#151

Post by thelamest »

nikanj wrote: post #143
unityByFreedom wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how you get a 2008-type crash - loans which seem to be unrelated but are tied to a common market. How does this happen again 15 years later? Is it because we ineffectively dealt with 2008? A result of the repeal of Glass-Steagall? Or have we over regulated banking to the point the miscreants went underground to build things like crypto? I don't get it. Crashing over and over doesn't seem good for anyone.

Crashes are a huge wealth transfer from the optimistic to the opportunistic. They’re very good for the few

True, but they’re still a negative sum event. (Putting aside libertarian-ish arguments, ironically overrepresented in crypto, that in the long term a crash is a healthy garbage-collection event.)

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#152

Post by jsemrau »

TekMol wrote: post #11

What are people holding all those stable coins for? In contrast to other crypto currencies, nobody is holding it for speculation. I doubt anybody expects stable coins to be a better store of "dollar value" than the dollar itself. Yet, someone holds those $150B worth of stable coins. Who and why?

I was mining BTC when it was 68K. Should have transferred it over to a stable-coin right there and then. Now I still hold the same amount in BTC but its worth a lot less.

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#153

Post by dropnerd »

slyfocks wrote: post #144
grey-area wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, isn’t selling one asset and buying another precisely the definition of a taxable event? I don’t see how tether helps you avoid taxes unless you’re going to lie about your transactions and hope nobody notices.

It is indeed a taxable event. People who exchange crypto for “stable”coins are generally doing so to stay out of the KYC banking realm so they can lie about their transactions to their country’s tax authorities.

i pay my taxes. i make money providing liquidity between eth and usdc.

when i'm not lp'ing, i see no reason to switch to usd so long as us-based attestations continue to be solid. the opportunity cost of being in usd on coinbase is missing lucrative nft deals.

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#155

Post by searchableguy »

chii wrote: post #108
exdsq wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Watching from the sidelines, the Crypto world seems to just be morphing into the normal financial world. Say this is true, how amazing would that be for countries without existing banking infrastructure to easily access it?

this is already being done via mobile phones. Crypto doesn't solve the problem of being unbanked. In fact, the requirement that you need good internet speed for crypto to run locally means it's even harder for a place without infrastructure to participate.

In India, everyone has a phone even if they do not have a roof, bank account, proper 3 meals a day, etc. Bank accounts also require minimum balance, address and identity proof which is hard to get for some, local branch is necessary to open an account due to regulation and quality can vary wildly even for urban centres.

> In fact, the requirement that you need good internet speed for crypto to run locally means it's even harder for a place without infrastructure to participate.

Internet costs less than $2 for monthly unlimited data.

You can find 300-500 Mbps broadband in small towns of country where you won't find roads or basic hospitals.

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#156

Post by dropnerd »

vladgur wrote: post #28
Jamie9912 wrote: post #9

I don't get all the bandwagon hate of crypto on this site.. Sure 99% of crypto schemes are b.s and ponzi. But I like to think in terms of use cases. Currently there is no way to send "money" to someone in another country on the other side of the world, in a decentralized way, and without transaction fees. Can this problem be solved without crypto? Probably, but currently crypto is looking like the best way to be able…

I was able to send funds from US directly to a bank account of my friend in Ukraine near instantly for low single digit percent and I could do the same using western union(to my surprise). All without a fear that my currency will drop 10-20% in a day. Now about decentralization, I believe that most people hold their transactional crypto funds in a handful of exchanges and thus the dream of decentralized crypto transa…

2-4% seems like a bad deal compared to sending usdc, which should be around closer to 0.1-1% after the ukraine exchange takes their usdc to local currency exchange fee. minimal volatility, less fees.

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#157

Post by password4321 »

dharma1 wrote: post #66
ceeplusplus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum based stablecoins are hardly the best way to do this. From a user standpoint you have to 1) buy your stablecoin on some exchange 2) transfer it to your own wallet 3) pay a hefty fee to transfer it to the recipient (>$20 when the network is busy) 4) Recipient pays another hefty fee to transfer it to an exchange so they can offramp. If I'm sending a remittance or similar paying $$$$ in fees is absolutely not d…

A lot of exchanges (and fiat onramps) now directly with L2s like Avalanche or Polygon where gas fees are a lot lower

On/offramp is still there if you have to get back through ETH.

I remember feeling the frog water warming up when I first heard how "wrapped ETH" was another required fee in-between... craziness.

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#158

Post by [deleted] »

Animats wrote: post #25

The big question with Tether has been, if they are holding commercial paper, whose commercial paper? Traders who deal in commercial paper of real companies that do real stuff don't see Tether present in that market. The dollar amounts are too big to hide. The suspicion is that their "commercial paper" is high-interest loans to other cryptocurrency companies. With the whole crypto sector in decline, those loans are at…

[deleted]

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#159

Post by puranjay »

delusional wrote: post #134
Animats wrote: post #25

The big question with Tether has been, if they are holding commercial paper, whose commercial paper? Traders who deal in commercial paper of real companies that do real stuff don't see Tether present in that market. The dollar amounts are too big to hide. The suspicion is that their "commercial paper" is high-interest loans to other cryptocurrency companies. With the whole crypto sector in decline, those loans are at…

> Why would anyone buy Tether at this point? There's zero upside potential, after all. Tether, and "stablecoins" in general are known as the casino chips of Crypto. A way to exchange more volatile crypto for what is supposed to be essentially dollars without creating a taxable event. Assuming crypto is still something people want to trade, that's still a valuable service. Tether isn't supposed to be an investment. It…

I think what OP meant was why would anyone hold Tether at this point instead of a more transparent and less fudded stabelcoin like USDC

Re: Top stablecoins shed $7B in May as traders redeem tokens en masse

#160

Post by mutatio »

web4 wrote: post #139
dmitriid wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has now mandated fast transfers between banks in the EU. So, for EU (23 countries) it's not a problem either. Sending money between banks is both a technical and a regulatory issue (and crypto is discovering why regulations exist at great cost to crypto users). However, "instant money transfer between banks" is not an unsolved issue.

large (> 10K) bank and wire transfers within UK and EU are still in the order of days, not seconds. the last large bank transfer I did took 5 days without any way for me to track this transfer. the same amount I was able to transfer within crypto networks in 30 seconds and the transaction progress and it’s validation status was visible for the entire duration. the EU and UK banking system is far better than the US bu…

This isn't true for transfers within the UK using Faster payments - upto £250K, near instantaneous.
Post reply on HN