Coin Market

The gold standard is back — Stablecoins need to rethink what ‘backing’ really means

Published

2 months ago

April 8, 2025

Opinion by: William Campbell, advisory lead at USDKG

Stablecoins were heralded as a breakthrough in the cryptocurrency space as a way to marry the lightning-fast, borderless nature of digital assets with the stability of traditional currencies. They achieve this by pegging their value to reserves like fiat currencies or commodities. Stablecoins are engineered to maintain a fixed exchange rate, typically one-to-one, with the underlying asset.

What does “stability” mean? At its core, stability demands three pillars:

Reliable collateral: The tangible assets that back the token.

Transparency: The ability for anyone to independently verify reserves.

Consistent peg maintenance: Robust safeguards against depegging, where a stablecoin’s market value strays from its fixed ratio with the underlying asset.

Without these foundational elements, stablecoins are little more than speculative instruments masquerading as safe harbors. In 2022 alone, billions in value evaporated when supposedly “secure” stablecoins lost their pegs, meaning their market prices diverged significantly from their intended 1:1 ratio with an underlying asset — prompting an unsettling question: Can digital assets ever be genuinely stable without demonstrable and independently audited backing?

The need for reliable asset-backed models

Recent market events have exposed severe fundamental weaknesses in privately issued stablecoins. These tokens often rely on opaque mechanisms, inadequate audit practices or collateral that investors cannot independently verify.

These shortcomings repeatedly led to sudden “depegging” events, such as the collapse of Iron Finance’s TITAN token in 2021. The overleveraged algorithmic system collapsed to near zero, wiping out billions in liquidity.

TerraUSD’s meltdown in 2022 also highlighted a similar vulnerability, with the stablecoin’s value disintegrating quickly, intensifying doubts about algorithmic models lacking transparent reserves.

Meanwhile, partially collateralized and so-called “fully audited” stablecoins have faced scrutiny for inconsistent disclosure practices. Even well-known issuers must constantly prove their reserves are sufficient and legitimate.

Recent: The state-backed stablecoin coin to change Kyrgtzstan’s (and global) economy

These issues primarily stem from insufficient oversight and ambiguous collateral management practices by private issuers. Investors typically have limited means to independently verify reserves, fueling persistent doubts about whether the stated backing genuinely exists or whether tokens are properly collateralized.

Only models with tangible asset support and verifiably documented reserves can genuinely deliver the stability that digital assets promise. Through transparent frameworks, we can rebuild trust and usher in a new era of reliable digital finance. These events underscore a universal truth: True stability is forged through auditable oversight and verifiable reserves, not hollow branding.

Gold is a timeless anchor

Gold has served as humanity’s ultimate store of value for millennia, preserving wealth through wars, economic collapses and pandemics. Its scarcity, intrinsic worth and universal acceptance have made it a refuge when institutions falter — evidenced by its 25% surge during the 2020 market crash as investors fled volatile assets.

Gold’s value transcends borders and ideologies, resting on tangible scarcity rather than hollow promises. For example, while the US dollar has lost 96.8% of its purchasing power since 1913, gold has consistently preserved and even grown its purchasing power. This track record positions it as an ideal anchor for digital assets seeking stability in a volatile crypto landscape.

Critics of gold might point to its storage and custodial costs, along with the logistical challenges of physically moving bullion. Modern vaulting solutions and robust insurance measures have, however, largely mitigated these concerns, particularly when combined with blockchain-based audit mechanisms.

Gold-backed stablecoins capitalize on this timeless reliability, pairing physical gold’s enduring value with blockchain’s efficiency. By linking digital tokens directly to physical gold, they sidestep the speculative risks of cryptocurrencies and the inflationary pitfalls of government-issued money.

Blockchain-enabled gold tokenization

Blockchain technology removes the traditional obstacles to gold ownership by enabling fractional digital ownership and global trading without intermediaries.

Physical gold stored in regulated vaults is digitized into tokens, each representing a precise fraction of the underlying asset. Every transaction is immutably recorded on a decentralized ledger, enabling investors to continuously check reserves in real time through automated smart contracts.

This system overcomes gold’s historic limitations, including illiquidity and high storage costs, while eliminating the opacity of traditional reserve management. Merging gold’s tangible security with blockchain’s immutable record-keeping, the system also engineers trust directly into the architecture.

This approach creates a stablecoin model unlike any other, where verifiable backing is the system’s backbone, not merely promised on paper.

Creating stablecoins that truly deliver stability

Gold-backed stablecoins merge blockchain’s inherent accountability with gold’s stability, establishing a new class of digital assets resistant to volatility. Anchoring digital tokens to gold’s intrinsic value, this model sidesteps the volatility of speculative cryptocurrencies and the inflationary risks of government-issued currencies.

The result is a stablecoin engineered for trust, where stability isn’t promised by code or institutions — it’s bolstered by tangible scarcity and blockchain’s unyielding transparency.

Trust as a cornerstone

The primary challenge facing stablecoins is establishing user trust. This trust can’t be built solely on a company’s reputation. It must be earned through independently verifiable collateral, real-time audits and clear regulatory oversight.

Innovative hybrid models showcase this approach effectively. The government strictly regulates and audits the gold reserves in a hybrid model to maintain verifiable 1:1 backing. The private entities handle token issuance, trading and compliance processes, carefully separating state verification of collateral from private management of operational functions.

This public-private partnership ensures rigorous oversight without creating a central bank digital currency. As they divide responsibilities, the model establishes a system where the government guarantees authenticity and collateral integrity while private enterprises handle operational efficiency, ensuring a balanced and decentralized yet trustworthy environment.

Toward a more trustworthy digital financial ecosystem

Genuine stability in digital finance emerges not from marketing slogans but from transparent mechanisms and verifiable collateral.

The future of digital finance lies in combining blockchain’s revolutionary transparency with the historically proven stability of gold, especially under government auditing and privately managed structures. As more asset-backed solutions emerge, institutions, regulators and everyday users will adopt stablecoins that transparently deliver on their stability promises.

This evolution marks a pivotal shift. Investors will no longer accept vague assurances. Investors demand concrete stability. Gold-backed stablecoins, blending ancient reliability with blockchain innovation, will lead the next generation of digital financial instruments, ensuring stablecoins fulfill their original promise — stability without compromise.

Opinion by: William Campbell, advisory lead at USDKG.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Coin Market

Cetus offers $6M bounty after $220M hack as Sui faces decentralization debate

Published

2 hours ago

May 23, 2025

Cetus is offering a $6 million white hat bounty in an effort to recover $220 million in stolen digital assets, while emergency responses from the Sui Network have raised concerns about decentralization.

Sui-native decentralized exchange (DEX) Cetus was exploited for over $220 million worth of cryptocurrency on May 22. However, Cetus managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds shortly after.

Cetus has since offered a white hat bounty of up to $6 million for the exploiter for returning the stolen 20,920 Ether (ETH), worth over $55 million, along with the rest of the stolen funds currently frozen on the Sui blockchain.

“In exchange, you can keep 2,324 ETH ($6M) as a bounty, and we will consider the matter closed and will not pursue any further legal, intelligence, or public action,” Cetus wrote in a message embedded in a blockchain transaction on May 22.

A bounty offer to the hacker. Source: Suivision

However, Cetus will “escalate with full legal and intelligence resources” if these assets are off-ramped or sent to cryptocurrency mixers and not returned promptly.

A white hat bounty is offered to ethical hackers who seek protocol vulnerabilities to prevent future exploits.

Cryptocurrency hacks soared to $90 million across 15 incidents in April, a 124% increase from March when hackers stole $41 million worth of digital assets.

Crypto stole in April 2025. Source: Immunefi

Meanwhile, the industry is still recovering from the largest crypto hack, which saw Bybit exchange lose over $1.4 billion on Feb. 21, 2025.

SUI considers emergency white list function to override transactions

Meanwhile, GitHub activity shows the Sui team has considered implementing an emergency whitelist function that would allow certain transactions to bypass security checks, potentially to recover funds linked to the hack.

Mysten, Sui, white list function. Source: GitHub

“It appears that the Sui team asked every validator to deploy patched code so they could take away @CetusProtocol hacker’s $160 million via an unsigned tx,” said Chaofan Shou, a software engineer at Solayer Labs.

However, an unnamed Sui engineer told Shou that “validators held off deploying this and currently they are only denying tx that involves hacker’s objects,” he said in a May 22 X post.

The move has sparked criticism among decentralization advocates, who argue that the ability to override transactions contradicts the principles of a decentralized permissionless network.

Despite widespread criticism in the crypto community, some saw the rapid response as a sign of progress, not centralization.

“This is what real world decentralization looks like. Not just powerless, but responsive and aligned with the community,” said pseudonymous crypto sleuth Matteo, adding that decentralization “isn’t about standing by while people get hurt, it’s about the power to act together, without needing permission.”

Magazine: Arthur Hayes $1M Bitcoin tip, altcoins ‘powerful rally’ looms: Hodler’s Digest, May 11 – 17

Coin Market

Bitcoin buyer dominance at $111K suggests 'another wave' of gains

Published

3 hours ago

May 23, 2025

Key points:

Bitcoin buyer interest remains strong at all-time highs, contrasting with the first touch of $100,000 in 2024.

The BTC price uptrend “may continue” as a result, CryptoQuant analysis concludes.

Bitcoin short-term holders are firmly in the black in a further potential bull market boost.

Bitcoin (BTC) buyers remain dominant on exchanges as all-time highs are met with unusual optimism.

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant shows a 90-day cumulative volume delta (CVD) favoring Bitcoin bulls.

CryptoQuant: BTC price uptrend “may continue”

BTC price all-time highs continue to find support among traders, with buyers staying dominant despite the market surging 50% in under two months.

Analyzing 90-day CVD, CryptoQuant contributor Ibrahim Cosar reveals the extent to which sellers have ceded control during that period.

“In short: Buy orders (taker buy) have become dominant again. In other words, more buy orders are being placed in the market than sell orders,” he summarizes.

“This generally signals that the uptrend may continue.”Bitcoin spot taker CVD. Source: CryptoQuant

CVD measures the difference between buy and sell volume over a three-month period. Until mid-March, sell-side pressure dominated the order book, with BTC/USD hitting multimonth lows under $75,000 in early April.

Neutral conditions then prevailed until buyer dominance reentered in May.

“The summary of the situation: As the price tests above $110K and reaches a new all-time high (ATH), buyers have not backed down. This could be setting the stage for another wave of upward movement,” Cosar concludes.

Bitcoin hodlers hold off on sales

As Cointelegraph reported, hodlers have broadly refrained from distributing coins to the market at current levels.

Daily profit-taking is half of what it was when Bitcoin first reached $100,000 in December 2024, research shows, while the price is 10% higher.

“Older coins were much less active this time, signaling stronger holding behavior,” onchain analytics firm Glassnode added in an X thread on the topic.

Coin age distribution shows the shift:

76.9% (May 2025)
44.6% (Dec 2024)

>6m-old coins:
13.4% (May 2025)
24.7% (Dec 2024)

Older coins were much less active this time, signaling stronger holding behavior. pic.twitter.com/8PZq8p3ZX7

— glassnode (@glassnode) May 22, 2025

CryptoQuant notes that price momentum increased after reclaiming the average cost basis for Bitcoin’s short-term holder (STH) cohort at just under $100,000 — entities buying within the last six months.

“Bitcoin is rallying after reclaiming the Short-Term Holder Average Cost basis — a key level that often serves as a strong buy-the-dip indicator during bull markets,” it told X followers.

Bitcoin STH cost basis data. Source: CryptoQuant

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Coin Market

DeFi near-zero onboarding costs can help 1.4B unbanked: 1inch co-founder

Published

3 hours ago

May 23, 2025

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have a major cost advantage over traditional banks when it comes to onboarding new users, according to Anton Bukov, co-founder of decentralized exchange (DEX) 1inch.

Speaking at a panel during Dutch Blockchain Week on May 22 in Amsterdam, Bukov said traditional banks spend between $100 and $300 per user to verify documents and set up accounts. Online banks, he said, spend about $20 to $30. In contrast, DeFi requires almost nothing beyond a smartphone and internet access.

“Onboarding to DeFi literally costs zero,” Bukov said. “You don’t need brick-and-mortar infrastructure or lengthy verification processes. Just connect and transact.”

Bukov said that this gives DeFi an edge over traditional financial institutions in reaching the 1.4 billion unbanked people who remain excluded from traditional finance due to high onboarding expenses.

1inch Network co-founder Anton Bukov at the Dutch Blockchain Week. Source: Cointelegraph

Reaching 1.4 billion unbanked users

“That’s why we have 1.4 billion people on the planet who are unbanked. No one’s going to invest those hundreds or tens of dollars into them because they will never return to them,” Bukov added.

Unlike traditional finance, which has high barriers to entry, Bukov said DeFi allows the unbanked to become a part of the global economy and engage in real-life transactions using stablecoins like Tether’s USDt (USDT).

With lower barriers to entry, DeFi becomes a tool for financial inclusion. Bukov said DeFi will continue to reach users who never had access to traditional banking as internet access expands globally.

“You can just get a phone, access to the internet, and you can exchange your chicken for USDT,” Bukov said, highlighting how easily DeFi enables participation in the global economy.

DeFi allows access to global liquidity

Apart from financial inclusion, Bukov said that the real value of crypto lies in how it gives access to global liquidity. The 1inch co-founder said crypto is evolving into an independent economic zone, where hundreds of billions flow through decentralized protocols.

“Crypto isn’t just about adopting stablecoins or building national digital currencies,” Bukov said. “It’s a growing global liquidity hub.”

He said that this liquidity is dynamic and allows financial experimentation, yield strategies and cross-border capital movement.

Bukov added that countries that align their regulations to enable easier access to this global liquidity can tap into economic opportunities and cooperation. “The more countries trade with each other, the more they succeed. Crypto works the same way,” he said.

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs: Inside story