Category: Stablecoins

US retailers back accepting crypto payments

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Business, crypto, Mobile payments, StablecoinsLeave a comment

There is some very positive information in Deloitte’s “Merchants Getting Ready For Crypto” report released in collaboration with PayPal on 8th June. Those involved in projects that enable crypto payments should be pleased with the findings.

According to the report, three quarters of US retailers plan to accept crypto or stablecoin payments within the next two years. Plus, more than half of large retailers with revenues over $500 million are currently spending $1 million or more building the required infrastructure to make it happen.

Even small and medium-sized retailers are preparing for a crypto payments future. Some 73% of retailers with revenues of between $10 million and $100 million are investing between $100,000 to $1 million to support the needed crypto payment infrastructure.

This infrastructure spending is set to accelerate in 2022, says Deloitte, as more than 60% of retailers said they expect budgets of more than $500,000 to enable crypto payments over the course of this year.

Consumer interest

Retailer adoption is being driven by consumer interest, with 64% of merchants saying their customers have expressed significant interest in using crypto for payments. And 83% of retailers expect this to increase this year.

Around 50% of retailers believe that adopting crypto will improve the customer experience, and the same percentage claimed that accepting crypto would make their brand seem more “cutting edge.” Of those retailers already accepting crypto payments, a whopping 93% reported a positive impact on their customer metrics.

Of course, the merchants acknowledged there are challenges to adoption of crypto. The main ones were the security of the payments system (43%) changing regulations (37%), volatility (36%) and a lack of a budget (30%).

The survey polled 2,000 senior executives at U.S. retail organizations between Dec 3 and Dec 16, 2021 when crypto prices were still riding high, but the results have only just been revealed. The executives were distributed equally among the cosmetics, digital goods, electronics, fashion, food and beverages, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household goods, services, and transportation sectors.

The survey also highlighted the fact that 85% of retailers believe the acceptance of crypto payments will be ‘ubiquitous’ in their sectors in five years time.

Sun shines light on stablecoins

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn StablecoinsLeave a comment

Justin Sun, the Tron founder, is known for his love of drama and dramatic gestures. This is the man who spent $4.5 million on a lunch with Warren Buffett and $28.5 million on a ticket to space with Blue Origin. So, any announcement from him tends to come with a big ticket price.

How about $10 billion? Five days ago, on 21st April, Sun published a blog post announcing that TRON DAO would be taking out $10 billion in collateral “to launch an algorithmic stablecoin and offer a 30% annual percentage yield to investors.” It will be called USDD and is supposed to launch on 5th May. Sun says it will be “the most decentralized stablecoin in human history.” 

In his blog, he writes that USDD will achieve full on-chain decentralization and “will not rely on any centralized institutions for redemption, management, and storage.” USDD will be pegged to TRON’s native cryptocurrency TRX and is managed by an algorithm that will keep USDD stable at 1:1 against the US dollar.

Unsurprisngly, crypto Twitter leapt into action. Branson Bollinger, a venture capitalist specializing in crypto, tweeted, “I wouldn’t go anywhere near it. There are so many super smart people in this space, so going anywhere near a project that has a questionable leader is just unnecessary.” Others were sceptical about the 30% APY. One called @Route2FI tweeted, “My first impression is that 30% APY seems way too high. I mean, look at Anchor Protocol. They’re struggling with 20% APY. How is Justin Sun going to sustain 30%?”

However, Tron has strength in the stablecoin space. Since it launched in 2017, it  has processed more than $4T of USDT transactions and has become the largest global stablecoin network.

Sun’s move comes at a time when we are seeing a surge in decentralized stablecoins. MakerDAO’s stablecoin DAI has a total value locked (TVL) of over $14 billion, and Terra’s UST has around $30 billion TVL.

Do Kwon, Terra’s CEO, who calls himself the “Master of Stablecoin” has also taken some major steps by pledging $10 billion in Bitcoin-denominated collateral for its own stablecoin earlier this year. His response to Sun’s announcement was to tweet, “Decentralized economies deserve decentralized money — every blockchain will run on dect. stables soon.” He later tweeted, “currencies are ultimately backed by the economies that use them, and the future is clearly opting to use decentralized and self sovereign stablecoin.”

How to Survive a Bear Market

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Altcoins, Bitcoin, crypto, Economy, Stablecoins, TipsLeave a comment

The year has not started well for crypto investors. Many of you will be trapped in the falling market and unable to cash out without incurring heavy losses. According to data from Intotheblock, 28% of Bitcoin investors and over 31% of Ethereum investors are in a situation where the assets are worth less than they paid for them.

The question most would like an answer to, is how can I survive this? Here are a few suggestions.

  1. Use dollar-cost averaging

If  you have stablecoins or fiat, you can buy the dip. But when you do, the most recommended strategy is to implement something called “dollar-cost averaging (DCA).” For example, let’s say you have $1,000 in reserve funds. A good DCA strategy would be to break up the amount into five tranches of $200 or even 10 tranches of $100 and place trades using those smaller amounts. So, instead of spending all your money in one go, it usually works out better to buy a small amount and wait to see if the asset falls in price further. If it does, buy a little more, and so on.

  • Diversify your investments

One way to hedge your bets is to use DCA for a range of different crypto assets. To choose your assets, look at the following: 1. Previous all-time-high; 2. Past performance and 3. Future roadmap announcements.

You should also look at whether an asset is considered to be ‘overbought’ or ‘oversold’. If an asset is deemed to be ‘overbought’, it means that its price is considered to be too high and that it will fall soon. If it is oversold, its price is considered to be undervalued, and that is usually a sign that prices will rise soon.

  • Don’t panic

In a bear market, you really need to manage your emotions as much as your money. Fear and greed can lead to investors making foolish, snap decisions that result in losses. Greed, for example, often leads to investors staying in a a trade beyond your take profit level in the hope the asset will rise even higher in price. What you need to do is set a stop for losses. Basically, take profits when you can and don’t panic when the bears arrive!