News Roundup — Ripple to launch US dollar stablecoin, aims to compete with USDT and USDC

Major news stories this week;

1. Ripple to launch US dollar stablecoin, aims to compete with USDT and USDC
2. BlackRock updates Bitcoin ETF, adds 5 Wall Street firms
3. Tether completes ‘gold standard’ security audit
4. PayPal Enables No-Fee Cross-Border Transfer Using Native Stablecoin PYUSD
5. Tether Added Nearly 8.9K Bitcoin to Holdings in First Quarter: On-Chain Data

Story Summaries;

1. XRP issuer Ripple has announced plans to launch a United States dollar-backed stablecoin and hopes to compete with Circle and Tether for a slice of the market share over the next five years.Cointelegraph spoke to Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz ahead of the announcement, which outlines plans for the stablecoin that will initially be issued on the XRP Ledger and the Ethereum blockchain.
2. Global asset manager BlackRock updated its Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) prospectus on April 5, adding five big Wall Street firms as new authorized participants. New members include ABN AMRO Clearing, Citadel Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs and UBS Securities, according to the document amending BlackRock’s S-1 registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
3. Tether has announced the successful completion of a System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC) audit — the highest level of security compliance that an organization can demonstrate. The audit was developed by the American Institute of Certified Accountants (AICPA). The firm aims to achieve the SOC 2 Type II certification by the end of 2025, which assesses the effectiveness of Tether’s internal controls over a period of 12 months.
4. The Silicon Valley-based company announced the new feature on Thursday, powered by its money transfer platform Xoom. Per the release, the service will be available to US users starting April 4. The feature enables users to convert PYUSD stablecoin in their linked PayPal, to USD and use it as a funding source to send money to recipients in 160 countries globally. Transactions funded using the stablecoin will have no Xoom transaction fees, it added.
5. Tether, the issuer of USDT, the world's largest stablecoin based on market cap, added just shy of 8,889 bitcoin (BTC) in the first quarter, according to on-chain trackers such as Arkham Intelligence. Though Tether made no official announcement of the action, a wallet believed to belong to the company shows as having 8,888.8888 bitcoin moved to it on March 31. Tether, of course, has made no secret of its intention to use a portion of its profits to acquire bitcoin.

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And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!

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