Return of Tone Vays: Life After ETFs, TUSD Depeg, and Tether Criticisms
“Return of Tone Vays” is a news podcast featuring the ForkLog editorial team and friends, discussing the week’s major industry events.
Topics of this episode include: power grid overloads by Makhachkala miners, risks of bitcoin ETFs for the industry, TUSD depeg, UN’s claims against Tether, Ethereum hard fork, and a new smartphone from Solana Mobile.
Participants: ForkLog authors Lena Jess, Alex K., Vasily Smirnov.
Special guest: Taras Podgorodetsky, founder of the AML platform StarCompliance.io.
Dagestan Miners
Energy officials in Dagestan, together with law enforcement, discovered an illegal mining farm in the Kirovsky district of Makhachkala. Its operation caused significant power grid overload.
According to a law enforcement report, energy losses were about 70%, affecting nearly 1,500 residents and ten commercial entities.
Previously, representatives of “Dagenergo” urged bitcoin miners to shut down their farms during cold spells.
ETF Risks
The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs brings not only well-known advantages but also significant risks. Experts highlight centralization of the asset, the emergence of a single point of failure, a new type of double-spending, and increased influence of institutional players on the development team.
More on the challenges the industry may face following ETF approval can be found in a ForkLog article.
TUSD Depeg
On January 15, the “stablecoin” TrueUSD (TUSD) lost its peg to the US dollar, dropping 1.3% to $0.984.
The depeg occurred amid significant TUSD sales on the Binance crypto exchange.
According to a report by Protos, the stablecoin’s security mechanism detected several API errors and failed to calculate the dollar value of its collateral assets.
UN’s Claims Against USDT
The stablecoin USDT has become a popular tool among fraudsters and money launderers, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
The organization notes that the asset is increasingly used in romance scams and “pig butchering” schemes, as well as in the black market of online casinos in Southeast Asia.
Tether, the issuer of USDT, issued a statement criticizing the UN’s position. The company argues that the organization’s experts overlooked their cooperation with authorities and law enforcement worldwide.
Ethereum Hard Fork
The core Ethereum team deployed the Dencun (Cancun-Deneb) update on the Goerli testnet. However, the hard fork was not completed as planned, presumably because about one-fifth of client operators did not update their software (there were several updates).
Read more about the Dencun hard fork in a special ForkLog article.
Saga2 Development
Solana Mobile has opened pre-orders for the second version of its Web3 smartphone — Saga Chapter2. The device is priced at $450.
More details about the smartphone can be found in a comprehensive ForkLog article.
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