Tether-parent iFinex to aid El Salvador’s crypto rules
Bitcoin-friendly nation El Salvador is working on a crypto regulatory framework and has enlisted help from a digital asset titan affiliated with the largest stablecoin.
The parent company of Bitfinex exchange and Tether (USDT), iFinex, reached a partnership with El Salvador to realize the vision of President Nayib Bukele for comprehensive crypto legislation.
An announcement published on May 13 revealed that iFinex will aid Bukele’s administration in building “a solid home for the digital asset and securities market” within the Central American jurisdiction.
Bitfinex and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the collaboration signals new opportunities to mobilize capital and bootstrap tokenized real-world assets like equities.
Ardoino’s companies, Bitfinex and Tether, are two of the largest and oldest crypto entities. Launched in 2012 and 2014, the firms have pioneered P2P digital asset exchange and stablecoin operations. Tether manages issuance for USDT, crypto’s biggest stablecoin offering, with a market cap of over $110 billion per CoinGecko.
Echoing similar remarks as Ardoino, President Bukele stressed the country’s confidence regarding the partnership’s expected results.
Combined with the iFinex partnership, Bukele’s regime also doubled down on its crypto transparency.
As crypto.news reported, El Salvador launched a Bitcoin (BTC) tracker to allow public view access to its stockpile. The platform, which operates a mempool dashboard, confirmed that the country holds some 5,748 BTC valued at over $360 million.
El Salvador introduced Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2021 and began accumulating the leading cryptocurrency, becoming the first nation to legalize the digital currency fully. Despite scrutiny from world bodies like the IMF, Bukele’s government remained steadfast in its Bitcoinfriendly approach and announced its decision to purchase one BTC per day.
However, its journey has experienced challenges. Citizens reported issuers with the state-controlled Bitcoin wallet Chivo and hackers leaked the tool’s data twice. El Salvador had not addressed these issues at press time, but the country continues to further its involvement with the nascent industry.
In April, derivatives trading volume on the largest exchanges decreased by 1.4% month-on-month.
However, futures trading volumes on Binance, the largest centralized exchange (CEX), rose more than 72% in April compared to March.
According to the Wu Blockchain team, the sharp increase in trading volume is due to Binance introducing a time-limited fee discount for USDC perpetual contracts, which led to a rise in trading volume for perpetual agreements.
However, excluding this, the total trading volume in April decreased by 26.6% compared to the previous month. The three largest declines in futures trading volumes were the exchanges Bitget at 16.1%, Crypto.com at 15.6%, and HTX at a 13.4% decline.
Spot trading volume fell even further, down nearly 38% month-on-month. Of all exchanges, Gate was the only one to see an uptick in activity at 13.7%. The exchanges that took the biggest hits were Kucoin at 70.8%, Upbit with a 57.5% decline, and Bitfinex with a 47.7% decrease.
In early April, Binance Futures introduced a trading fee discount for all USDC-margined perpetual contracts. During the promotion, all Binance users received discounts when trading any USDC-margined perpetual contracts.
The promotion began shortly after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison due to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and the exchange was fined $4.4 billion as a result. Zhao pleaded guilty and made a deal with the investigation, resigning as CEO of Binance and agreeing to pay a $50 million fine.
The remittance industry is currently dominated by giants like Western Union, Euronet, Moneygram, and chiefly PayPal, which has a market share of just over 50%. While the big four continue to reign supreme, emerging blockchain-based money transfer firms may start eclipsing smaller players in the industry, thanks to cheaper charges and faster transactions.