Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Tether refuted the United Nations’ report on illicit activities conducted using Tether
USDT $1.00. United States presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has dropped out of the U.S. presidential race, as the dollar-pegged stablecoin TrueUSD fell from its $1 peg.
Tether responds to UN report about ‘illicit activity’ of USDT
Major stablecoin firm Tether has responded to a United Nations (UN) report highlighting the alleged involvement of its Tether
USDT $1.00 stablecoin in illicit activity.
Challenging the UN’s study on Jan. 15, Tether emphasized that the agency’s analysis has “ignored the traceability” of USDT and disregarded its proven record of collaborating with law enforcement worldwide. “The UN should also discuss how centralized stablecoins can improve anti-financial crime efforts,” Tether said, adding that the firm is committed to collaboration on such matters.
Tether further highlighted that it froze more than $300 million in USDT involved in illicit activities over the past few months, including $225 million frozen in November 2023 as part of a United States investigation into a Southeast Asian human trafficking syndicate.
Pro-crypto Vivek Ramaswamy drops out of U.S. presidential race
Speaking at a Jan. 16 press conference in Des Moines, Ramaswamy told his followers that he would no longer be running for president, stating: “As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign.”
“There’s no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country.”
Pro-crypto Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has dropped out of the United States presidential election, putting an almost certain end to his nearly year-long campaign.
Ramaswamy emerged on the presidential campaign circuit as a relatively unknown candidate but quickly garnered a following from the crypto community for his outspoken policy proposals concerning Bitcoin and other digital assets.
TrueUSD stablecoin depegs as holders dump $330M in TUSD
Justin Sun-linked stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD) fell below its $1 peg starting Jan. 15, 11:00 am UTC, tumbling as low as $0.984 at 11:15 pm.
At the time of publication, TUSD is trading for $0.987, 1.1% below its intended $1 peg, per CoinMarketCap data.
The depegging event comes amid an outsized volume of selling of TUSD on the crypto exchange Binance.
As of publication, traders have sold more than $339.2 million worth of TUSD in the last 24 hours on Binance, compared to only $296.8 million worth of buy orders, marking a total net outflow of $42.3 million.
On Jan. 10, reports emerged that TrueUSD was experiencing difficulties posting real-time attestations of its reserves, suggesting that the stablecoin may have been undercollateralized.
Several users on Crypto X have also speculated that the outsized sell-off could have been related to the TUSD not being listed as one of the assets on Binance’s Manta (MANTA) launch pool initiative.
