From the latest reports, it appears that Ripple is collaborating with Palau, an island country and a microstate with a population of only 20,000, in an effort to launch a national stablecoin.
Indeed, in one of the latest interviews with Bloomberg, Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. revealed interesting details about the country’s digitization and future incorporation of blockchain.
These include the collaboration with Ripple, the real-time funds transfer system, and the network for currency exchanges to create a national Stablecoin. It is worth mentioning that, in general, a Stablecoin is a stable currency. Meaning it has a price designed to be pegged to a reference asset: fiat money, commodities traded on an exchange, or a cryptocurrency.
Summary
Palau and the stablecoin on Ripple: easier and safer payments
As cryptocurrencies move forward, they are increasingly gaining popularity globally, especially recently. In fact, countries, large or small, are trying to digitize their economies and incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
In addition, several central banks are looking to launch their own Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), while others are looking to launch their own stablecoins. Specifically, in this case we are talking about Palau and its collaboration with Ripple in order to create a national Stablecoin.
The news, which is positive for the crypto world, is reported on Watcher.Guru‘s official Twitter account:
JUST IN: 🇵🇼 Palau's President says the country is working with #Ripple to explore the creation of a national stablecoin.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 26, 2022
Whipps Jr. spoke about the country’s digitization and what they are trying to incorporate in terms of further developments in the future. The president also announced that the country is working with Ripple to explore the creation of a national stablecoin.
In addition, he said they are planning to launch the stablecoin soon, which will help make payments easier and safer. Whipps Jr. also talked about the recent visit of CZ, CEO of Binance, to the country and their conversations on how to use Binance Pay to make payments easier for the country’s digital residents.
Specifically, Palau’s president stated:
“This is a new world for Palau, but we are thrilled to be a part of it. One advantage we have is that we are small and hopefully can mobilize our government and be more adaptable to the changes that need to be made in this rapidly changing environment.”
The president also said that central bank digital currencies and the overall crypto and blockchain technologies can complement each other.
The other news for Ripple: toward the end of the case against the SEC
It is no secret that Ripple has been held back and hampered in no small part by the case triggered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. A case with roots going back to 2020, due to allegations by the US commission deeming XRP, Ripple’s native crypto, to be a security and not a currency.
The SEC at the time claimed how the crypto team conducted a campaign to raise unregistered assets through the issuance of XRP.
After raising about $1.3 billion, the prosecution claimed that Ripple was a security and the defense the opposite. A final allegation was made recently, after which it appears that the case will be resolved in the immediate future, probably in the first quarter of 2023.
Specifically, the defense document detailed how the SEC had been unable to support its allegations regarding the issuance of XRP tokens in 2020 as a form of “investment contract,” on par with a security.
As such, the board called for the charges to be dropped and for the case to be closed in its favor. What is now awaited is only the judge’s final decision. In any case, if Ripple eventually loses, this would represent a not insignificant criticality not only for the crypto in question, but for the entire industry.
Indeed, defeat seems unacceptable given that, at the end of 2022, the cryptocurrency world has to contend with a series of concatenated failures, of which FTX is just the latest tip of the iceberg.
The loss of the case by Ripple and the defeat of XRP would be a very hard blow to the industry. Indeed, if XRP were declared equal to a security, it could lose ground quickly, reaching even its absolute lows.
In addition, it appears that the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has stated that he plans to move the company to another state if his crypto team loses the case.
However, if XRP wins the case, it could rise from its current price of $0.35 to close to $2.89 in five years, and some Web3 trader estimates see it touching $7.30 in 2030.
Beyond Ripple, the most popular stablecoins: everything there is to know
Beyond the upcoming launch of Ripple and Palau stablecoin, at present the most famous existing stablecoins are those that replicate the dollar. Among them, the best-known and most widely used are, for example, Tether USD (USDT).
This is the stablecoin created by the company Tether, which is the most widely used in the cryptocurrency market today. Not only to protect value, but also for other use cases, such as funding trading accounts designed exclusively for cryptocurrency trading.
There’s also USD Coin (USDC), created and supported by Circle and Coinbase, considered by many to be the most secure and well-supported stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market. However, it is worth noting that it does not currently have as large a use case as Tether.
Unmissable is Binance’s stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). The latter is created by the world’s largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange and has numerous specific benefits for customers/users of the Binance exchange, as well as users of the BEP20 blockchain, better known as the “Binance Smart Chain,” the blockchain created and managed by Binance.
Finally, there is the DAI stablecoin, the largest decentralized stable cryptocurrency created by the company MakerDAO. What makes this stable cryptocurrency unique is the fact that it is backed 100% by digital assets, stored on the Ethereum blockchain.
In other words, the assets that secure the DAI are stored in a place that is partly protected by blockchain technology, and at the same time open to the view of anyone who wants to check the blockchain to consult and verify that such crypto assets really exist and are in a digital wallet held by Maker.
