Announced Wednesday, Voyager said its support of tether (USDT), USD coin (USDC) and true USD (TUSD) would enable traders to better manage risk and fund their accounts without going through a bank.
Cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital has listed three stablecoins and will soon allow customers to earn interest on their holdings.
“Adding these three new stablecoins to our platform gives our customers an alternative funding mechanism and another means to hedge their risk in the crypto market”, said Stephen Ehrlich, Voyager co-founder and CEO.
Voyager allows both retail and institutional investors commission-free trading on multiple exchanges from a single account. The platform uses technology said to ensure traders get the best prices available. The firm itself earns revenue by taking a spread from orders executed at levels better than quoted at order submission.
Ehrlich, who used to be the CEO of E*Trade, founded Voyager with Oscar Salazar, the former CTO of Uber, in the summer of 2018. The broker began offering interest on 3 percent APR on bitcoin last November, following its acquisition of wallet startup Ethos earlier that year.
“Voyager customers will also be able to earn interest on these stablecoins, giving them another way to grow wealth in the crypto industry”, said Ehrlich. Deposits and withdrawals for all three stablecoins opened earlier Wednesday, with interest-earning beginning Feb. 1.
The brokerage firm took the unusual step of a reverse merger in 2019, purchasing the majority of shares in a publicly traded company – in this case, a defunct mining exploration company – and combining in order to become listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
By becoming a listed company, Voyager now makes quarterly and annual disclosures of its financials and answers to the Canadian securities regulator. That can help build trust with traders, according to Ehrlich, who said there was «an increase in demand for users looking for new, secure platforms to buy and trade crypto assets.»
US Lawmaker Introduces Bill Classifying Stablecoins as Securities
Congress may consider a bill to classify stablecoins – cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to a fiat currency or other assets – as securities.
In a draft bill published Tuesday, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) introduced legislation to the House Financial Services Committee to regulate stablecoins under the Securities Act of 1933, seeking to provide clarity in an area the bill suggests lacks regulatory guidance.
The bill states:
“The market value of such digital asset is determined, in whole or in significant part, directly or indirectly, by reference to the value of a pool or basket of assets, including digital assets, held, designated, or managed by one or more persons.”
The proposed legislation appears to be a response to the Facebook-led Libra cryptocurrency, which the social media giant introduced in June 2019. The cryptocurrency is meant to be a stablecoin pegged to a basket of fiat currencies.
Lawmakers have urged Facebook and its partners not to launch Libra – and indeed, to halt all development entirely – until regulatory questions around the project and its governance can be resolved.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before the committee on Wednesday.
If signed into law, the rule would give the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jurisdictional authority over all stablecoins and their issuers.
The bill’s introduction does not mean it will ever become law: First, it would need to be voted out of committee, passed by the House of Representatives, taken up and passed by the Senate and signed into law by the U.S. President. It is unclear what sort of support the bill has at present.
However, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler believes Libra already looks like a security, testifying before the Financial Services Committee in July that the project looks similar to an exchange-traded fund, which does fall within the SEC’s purview.
The bill was introduced jointly with another draft bill sponsored by Rep. Michael San Nicolas (D-Guam), which would bar national security exchanges from listing a security by an issuer if the issuer or an executive affiliated with it received compensation in the form of a managed stablecoin.
