The cryptocurrency market has turned slightly bearish with Bitcoin (BTC) breaking below $30,000 once again. While preparing this report, Bitcoin was trading at $28,785, down 4.80% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) had lost 7.90% to trade at $1,939. XRP was trading at $0.4927, reflecting a decrease of 6.20% in the same period.
The major cryptos, which have gained ground in the past 24 hours, are Binance Coin (BNB – $322.99, -5.60%), Shiba Inu (SHIB, $0.00001088, -5.80%), VeChain (VET, $0.02392, -8.820%), IOTA (IOTA – $0.2078, -9.10%), Stellar (XLM, $0.0975, -7.20%), Polkadot (DOT, $6.35, -7.40%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, $125.61, -5.70%), Cardano (ADA, $0.4169, -4.60%), Tezos (XTZ, $1.06, -8%), Solana (SOL, $22.72, -8.10%), ChainLink (LINK – $7.78, -8.90%), Avalanche (Avax- $18.94, -0.10%), and EOS (EOS – $1.10, -8.90%).
Private sector initiatives
UBS Uses Broadridge’s DLT Platform For Cross-Border Repo Trade With Asian Bank
UBS employed Broadridge’s Distributed Ledger Repo (DLT) platform to conclude its foremost intraday cross-border repo trade with an Asian bank (undisclosed) having a global presence. The Swiss bank signed up two years ago. Repos (repurchase agreements) involve the sale of a bond, usually a Treasury, and a subsequent repurchase at a predetermined date. The bond acts as collateral for the loan.
Beatriz Martin, UBS Group Treasurer, has pointed out that intraday repo is a useful resource to achieve optimum use of liquidity and offers flexibility in funding abilities with reduced operational risk.
Currently, the solution is to handle trades worth $1 trillion per month. However, a major portion of the trades are internal, allowing a group such as UBS or Societe Generale to guarantee the collateral in the relevant subsidiary. As Broadridge enrolls additional clients, participants can handle external bilateral trades.
The major advantage of the DLR is that it paves the way for better flexibility in settlement timing, with a rise in intraday liquidity and interest rates. The Broadridge DLR brings together the workflow, processing, and settlement of trades on the same ledger, minimizing risk and avoiding the requirement of reconciliations.
BTG Pactual Introduces Stablecoin BTG Dol For Dollarization On Mynt Platform
BTG Pactual, one of the largest investment banks in South America, has introduced BTG Dol, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. The stablecoin is added to the bank’s Mynt cryptocurrency trading platform as an extra feature. The bank aims to offer investors the option to ‘dollarize’ a portion of their portfolio.
The bank offers custodial services for the tokens and other pegged assets, administers the assets, and ensures compliance, including anti-money laundering (AML).
The initiative can increase the bank’s bottom line. Stablecoins do not generate any yield for token holders. However, the bank can use the pegged assets to invest in US Treasuries to generate a reliable source of income. Currently, the short-term treasuries carry a yield of 4.64%.
Postfinance Teams Up With Sygnum To Enable Crypto Purchases For Retail Clients
PostFinance, the banking unit of SwissPost, has collaborated with digital asset bank Sygnum to facilitate cryptocurrency purchases by its retail clients. The largest retail banking service provider in Switzerland is already offering crypto-related services to its customers through Swissquote. Notably, the aforesaid partnership is the 15th b2b banking collaboration of Sygnum.
Sygnum was established in 2019 in partnership with another state-run enterprise, Swisscom, and the Deutsche Börse. Sygnum has stated that its B2B banking system will be embedded into PostFinance’s prevailing framework and will permit PostFinance to provide staking services and also a crypto trading facility.
Philipp Merkt, Chief Investment Officer of PostFinance Ltd “Digital assets have grown into a key component of the realm of finance, and our consumers want PostFinance, their trustworthy primary bank, to provide access to this marketplace.”
ANZ Bank Uses ANZ A$DC Stablecoin For Tokenized Carbon Credit Trades In CBDC Trial
ANZ bank has concluded another step related to Australia’s CBDC (central bank digital currency) trials. The experiment involved the use of the ANZ A$DC stablecoin to settle tokenized carbon credit trades. The bank has participated in four out of 15 use case trials in the Australian CBDC pilot, which is being undertaken by the Digital Finance CRC (DFCRC).
Earlier the stablecoin was employed to settle transactions on a public permissionless blockchain. In this case, the CBDC was utilized as the reserve asset pegged to stablecoin. Beyond the CBDC trials, ANZ had completed the issuance of stablecoin on Ethereum a year earlier.
With respect to the trial, ANZ collaborated with Grollo Carbon Ventures (GCV) and tokenized prevailing Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Grollo bought the carbon credits, and the settlement was carried out almost instantly. Considering the near real-time settlement, the counterparty threat is minimal, specifically as the risk-free CBDC was utilized to back the stablecoin.
Commenting on the initiative, ANZ Banking Services Lead Nigel Dobson stated, “Tokenization, when employed in carbon markets, has the ability to increase effectiveness and openness, minimize risk, and retain the distinctive features of core initiatives in order to encourage funding for environmental solutions.”
Disclaimer: Any financial trading analysis offered here is our opinion and is not intended as advice or direction for investors. We cannot guarantee the success of any trades made as a consequence of this article, and we encourage traders to incorporate a strong money management strategy to limit losses when they enter the markets. Please use this article as part of your own research before formulating strategies prior to trading.
