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Tether, the company behind the world's largest stablecoin, is upping its transparency game. They've just brought on Philip Gradwell as head of economics. Gradwell, previously the chief economist at Chainalysis, will be crunching numbers on USDT usage. His main job? Explaining USDT's role to regulators and stakeholders. It's a big task. USDT's daily trading volumes are in the billions. In the last 24 hours alone, it hit $32.23 billion, according to Messari. Gradwell's got his work cut out for him. He's aiming to shift the conversation. "Many people still view digital assets as a mystery," he says. His goal is to show how USDT is "supporting dollar hegemony" in the real economy. The new hire comes at a crucial time. Tether's relationship with U.S. regulators has been a bit of a rollercoaster. In 2021, they coughed up $18.5 million to settle with New York's Attorney General. The issue? Allegations of misrepresenting USDT's backing. But they're not all at loggerheads. Tether's been playing ball with the feds lately. They've even let the FBI onto their platform. In March, they helped the DOJ recover $1.4 million in stolen USDT. Gradwell's role will be key in "enhancing communication with regulatory bodies," says Tether. It's a smart move. Government scrutiny has actually boosted USDT's market share. Talk about a silver lining. Right now, USDT dominates 69% of the stablecoin market. Its nearest rival, USDC, is eating dust. DefiLlama puts USDT's current market cap at a whopping $112 billion. Tether's clearly not messing around. They're bringing in the big guns to explain their coin's real-world impact. It's a savvy play in today's regulatory climate. Will Gradwell's number-crunching satisfy the powers that be? Only time will tell. But one thing's for sure: Tether's not sitting on its hands. For now, it's all eyes on Gradwell. Can he demystify USDT for the skeptics? That's the million-dollar question. Or should we say, the 112-billion-dollar question?

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino suggests localized AI models as a solution to prevent hacks in blockchain. Ardoino argues that locally executable AI models are capable of protecting privacy and independence. Modern devices have sufficient power for this approach, according to Ardoino. He stated, "Smartphones and laptops can fine tune general large language models (LLMs) with user's own data, preserving enhancements locally to the device." Ardoino described this as a "paradigm shift" in user privacy and independence. "By running directly on the user's device, be it a smartphone or laptop, these models eliminate the need for third-party servers. This not only ensures that data stays local, enhancing security and privacy, but also allows for offline use," Ardoino said. Tether's boss also emphasized that users could maintain control over their information. According to him, Tether, issuer of the leading stablecoin USDT, is exploring the integration of locally executable models into its AI solutions. The proposal follows a hack at OpenAI. Reports indicate a hacker accessed OpenAI's internal messaging systems in early 2023 and compromised details of the company's AI design. That was before ChatGPT was launched to a massive success. And that was not the only security scandal around security issues with the most successful AI company. Recently, ChatGPT conversations of macOS users were found to be stored in unencrypted plain-text files. That was a huge deal, as many users share very sensitive information on those chats, including their own private financial data and work info. Apple recently announced plans to integrate ChatGPT with its "Apple Intelligence" AI-powered products. The encryption issue has reportedly been resolved. However, questions remain about why it occurred.

Tether's USDT on Tron has surpassed Visa's average daily trading volume. In a single day, USDT on Tron reached $53 billion in transactions. And that is remarkable. Visa, a traditional financial giant, averages $42 billion per day. USDT on Tron, however, hit $53 billion in just 24 hours. Visa is used all over the world as a traditional way of exchanging funds, while USDT is just a part of a fast evolving, yet very young and still maturing crypto market. Tron's achievement represents a significant shift in the financial landscape. It proves that digital currencies can compete with established financial systems. The victory over Visa, a payment industry leader, illustrates the rapid growth of digital currencies. The rise in transaction volumes on Tron is significant for the digital currency sector. Users are increasingly adopting TRC-20 wallets for various transactions. This trend suggests digital currencies are becoming integral to everyday financial activities, and the rate of this acceptance is becoming phenomenally fast. Even people who are not generally interested in crypto, are now more often using USDT for their financial needs. The extensive use of Tether (USDT) on Tron's network is driving on-chain activity. It demonstrates the efficiency of digital currencies for global transactions. This growth points to a future where digital money could outperform traditional payment systems in speed and cost-effectiveness. So, no matter how skeptical you might be, it is safe to say that digital currencies are no longer niche. They are emerging as serious competitors to established financial institutions. The latter are in a present and clear danger of becoming obsolete. TRON's dominance in the USDT market is truly remarkable. By Q1 2024, TRON held $59.3 billion, or 53.7%, of USDT's market cap. This surpasses Ethereum's share and underscores TRON's key role in the digital currency ecosystem.

Opera's mobile browser, Opera Mini, is upgrading its cryptocurrency wallet MiniPay to include two of the world's most popular stablecoins - Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. Users can switch between USD Coin and cUSD with minimal fees. The process uses a simple drag-and-drop motion. Jørgen Arnesen, Opera's executive vice president of Mobile, explained the feature. "It abstracts assets swapping in Web3," he said. "Users can effortlessly swap between all 3 stablecoins." Just to remind you, MiniPay was launched in September 2023 inside Opera Mini browser and run on the Celo blockchain. It uses Mento's cUSD, pegged to the US dollar. A kind of an own stablecoin, to be precise. The wallet initially targeted African markets. Opera said from the beginning that the browser wallet aimed to facilitate stablecoin transfers using mobile numbers. Arnesen discussed the rationale behind this focus. "We recognized the significant potential of blockchain-enabled peer-to-peer solutions within the continent," he stated. He noted common concerns among consumers. These included high fees, unreliable services, and lack of transparency in local payment options. All of that is supposed to be overcome by Opera's wallet built in the popular browser. MiniPay has also launched a Discover Page for decentralized applications (DApps). It organizes native DApps, providing direct access to various tools. Since its launch, MiniPay has seen rapid growth. It has over three million wallet activations across several African countries. Arnesen highlighted Africa's potential for digital asset adoption. He cited its young population and widespread smartphone use. Opera Mini is the most downloaded mobile browser in Africa. It boasts nearly 100 million users.

A significant Ethereum (ETH) transaction caught the attention of crypto analysts over the weekend. On-chain data revealed a single entity withdrew over $206 million worth of ETH from Bitfinex. What is this whale up to? Lookonchain suggests the whale is likely Abraxas Capital Management. it is a famous UK-based investment firm that specializes in crypto assets. Abraxas has been active in the crypto space since 2017. As of April 2024, its three digital asset funds manage over $2 billion. The whale's actions didn't stop at withdrawal. There was a serious game to be carried out, that someone must have planned meticulously. So at first, the ETH was deposited into Spark, a DeFi infrastructure provider. This move appears strategic. The deposited ETH serves as collateral for the stablecoin DAI. No wonder, our whale then borrowed 101 million DAI from Spark. But the next move was kind of surprising, if not to say unpredictable. This borrowed DAI was then swapped for 101 million USDC. That's a second most popular stablecoin in the world, in case you forgot. The final step saw the USDC deposited into Binance, the world's leading crypto exchange. This series of transactions demonstrates complex maneuvering within the crypto ecosystem, basically, our whale definitely knew what to do. Spark offers multiple DeFi products. These include SparkLend, a DAI-centric money market protocol, and sDAI, a yield-bearing stablecoin. At the time of writing, ETH trades at $3,442. While up 3% over seven days, it's down 10% month-on-month. ETH remains 29% below its November 2021 all-time high of $4,878. USDC and DAI rank as the second and third-largest stablecoins by market cap. Both aim to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar.