25th August 2024 > > EURC & TON.

tl;dr

MiCA is a bulwark against the naysayers. TON takes a hit as the CEO of Telegram is whisked off to a French prison.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Robert Kennedy, Jr. has effectively pulled out of the race to be the next President of the US, endorsing Trump at the same time, no doubt in exchange for a juicy job with a very fat pension after just four years in the role (he won’t get more than that). Polymarket odds are back to an even split between the two contenders. Kamala Harris is keeping schtum about cryptos (and pretty much everything else, to be honest) so my working assumption has to be that a Harris presidency will continue with Operation Choke Point 2.0 and 3.0, though I wish it were not so.

Jerome Powell, chair of the Fed, has announced interest rate cuts for next month. Having admitted his mistake in not cutting them last week, what exactly is wrong with doing it now?

Meme Corner – This is the taxman at work

h/t Alex2036

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – EURC

EURC is a Euro-denominated stablecoin issued by Circle n Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar. Circle describes it as:

“Designed for stability, EURC is compliant with MiCA and backed 100% by euro (sic). Euro reserves are transparently held at regulated financial institutions in the EEA with published monthly attestations.”

That bit about compliant with MiCA. Lovely. That’s what we want to see.

Coinbase is providing a fiat EUR to EURC conversion at 1:1 from August 28th with no fees. This is a fine example of how targeted and well-designed regulation in the form of MiCA provides a stable background for companies to develop and grow, by providing clients with the services and products they want.

MiCA is a very strong defence against Operation Choke Point 3.0. Yah boo sucks to you Harris, Gensler, Warren, et al.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – TON and Telegram

We recently looked at Telegram’s native token TON (https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/7th-july-2024-ton).

There is good stuff going for TON, not least ease of use if you are familiar with some of the functionality of Telegram. Access to the 900mm users of Telegram, compared to the 2.5mm active using TON, suggests a lot of room for it to grow, which is the base case for an initial small investment by the CC Treasury.

The downside was always one of reputational risk. Telegram is rife with scammers, and other illegal activities. Though this is true of all social media, its Russian roots does suggest to me that it will have an even less effective moral compass than its competition. You can be sure Putin and his murderous cronies are involved at a senior level, though the company now claims it is free of all Russian ties and influence.

TON has dropped nearly 20% overnight following news of the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov after arriving in Paris on his private plane from Azerbaijan for “...multiple offenses: terrorism, drugs, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, [and] pedocriminal content."

VC fund Pantera Capital has shown its own lack of moral compass posting a “#FreePavel” message presumably without detailed knowledge of the evidence behind the arrest of Pavel. It is entirely coincidental that Pantera Capital made TON its largest investment ever earlier this year.