In a press release on Dec. 10, BitPay confirmed businesses could now accept payment in USD Coin (USDC), Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Paxos Standard Token (PAX). All are pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Controversial cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay has announced it is adding three stablecoins to its list of supported tokens.
The rollout brings the total number of available cryptocurrencies to six, alongside Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ether (ETH).
BitPay steers clear of USDT
Notably absent from BitPay’s choice is Tether (USDT), the stablecoin with by far the biggest trading volumes.
“Accepting or paying with stablecoins opens up new possibilities for global businesses that require the stability of the dollar but the security and efficiency of blockchain payments”, CEO Stephen Pair commented in the press release. Pair added:
“Businesses can invoice international customers without the need for costly, complicated cross-border wire transfers. Customers can send and receive payments using fast, efficient, and volatility free dollar-pegged stablecoins.”
Corporate decisions in the spotlight
BitPay has faced sustained criticism over various aspects of its business practices this year. As Cointelegraph reported, seemingly arbitrary rejections of payments to charities ignited a storm on social media, with users claiming that the company’s policy constituted the very centralized censorship that Bitcoin was built to eliminate.
A separate problem stems from BitPay’s lack of compatibility with many major wallets. In September, Bitcoin developers signaled future upgrades to the Bitcoin Core client could remove compatibility altogether.
In October, BitPay announced plans to support altcoin XRP for payments.
Bitcoin, Stablecoins, DeFi and Privacy: How COVID-19 Is Changing Key Crypto Narratives
How the once-in-a-generation COVID-19 pandemic is shifting the way we think and talk about different parts of the crypto industry — from bitcoin (BTC) to DeFi to stablecoins.
On Jan. 28, Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal tweeted, “Notable overlap on here between the most alarmist people tweeting about the virus and those who are obsessed with the size of the Fed balance sheet.”
There is no doubt the bitcoin and crypto community broadly were far earlier in recognizing the potential significance of the COVID-19 crisis than most professional communities. Today, America preps for at least another month of lockdown and social distancing. The markets continue their chaotic swing as investors are simply unable to price in such a once-in-a-lifetime event.
A question for the crypto community becomes: How is this impacting narratives about our own industry?
Binance to List Its New Dollar-Backed BUSD Stablecoin Next Week
Binance’s new dollar-backed stablecoin, BUSD, created in partnership with the Paxos Trust Company, will be made available for trading on the cryptocurrency exchange the week of Sept. 16.
Announced on Thursday at CoinDesk’s Invest: Asia conference, Paxos co-founder Rich Teo said:
“We minted out first batch of Binance U.S. dollars. It will be made available for trading starting next week against a few trading pairs such as BTC and BNB.”
Earlier this month, the Paxos Trust Company, which already issues its own dollar-backed and gold-backed stablecoins, obtained additional regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to issue BUSD.
Now Binance will list the asset on its exchange, which is the largest globally by trading volume, alongside a slew of other stablecoins already listed on the platform such as USDT, USDC and PAX.
“Launching a stablecoin approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is a strategic step for Binance to provide on-chain financial services for users across the world”, said Binance CFO Wei Zhou.
This is not the first stablecoin to be created by Binance and listed on the cryptocurrency exchange. In July, the Jersey arm of Binance enabled trading for its own British pound-backed stablecoin called Binance GBP (BGBP).
Seeing a multi-coin future where many different “types and forms” of stablecoins are traded actively on the exchange, Zhou added:
“We hope to launch more compliant stablecoins backed by fiat reserves in the future, introducing more stability to the cryptocurrency world.”
