Latest news with #BUSD
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Paxos is applying to become a US bank — Here's why that matters
Paxos, the company that issues PayPal's $1 billion stablecoin, has applied for a national trust bank charter in the US, becoming the latest crypto company to pursue becoming a Federally-regulated bank in the US. It's a move that could give Paxos a gloss of establishment respectability, and a direct presence in America's financial sector. If approved, Paxos will be able to operate across the US without navigating the patchwork of local banking licences. However, while an approval would allow Paxos to hold customer assets and settle transactions, it won't act as a traditional lender that can accept deposits and issue loans. Paxos' charter application comes at a time when Washington, under the Trump administration, has warmed up to crypto. In July, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law, effectively legalising stablecoins in the US. Circle and Ripple Paxos is the latest crypto company to pursue banking charter status. Circle and Ripple both applied earlier this summer. Chris Colson, payments guru at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, told DL News that an approval would enhance trust in their respective stablecoins. 'It potentially paves the way for broader institutional and cross-border adoption,' he said. Yet, those US banking charter ambitions rely on the hope that the regulatory thaw has extended to the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the agency that licenses and supervises all national banks. An OCC charter has been a tough nut to crack for crypto companies. Only one firm, Anchorage Digital, has been able to scale the process. Paxos itself tried to obtain a national bank charter in 2020 but its application stalled and expired in 2023. Earlier in August, the stablecoin issuer settled with the New York Department of Financial Services for $26.5 million over its alleged failure to conduct due diligence on Binance. Paxos was the issuer behind Binance's BUSD stablecoin, which once peaked at $23 billion in market value. Crypto market movers Bitcoin is down 1.4% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $118,433. Ethereum is up 2.6% in the same period to $4,295. What we're reading Trump Media brings Truth token plans into the open in latest SEC filing — DL News White House Crypto Advisor Bo Hines Steps Down — Unchained Do Kwon May Plead Guilty in US Case Over $40 Billion Terraform Collapse — Bloomberg Ether Breaks $4,000 as Spot ETFs Get Massive Inflows — Unchained Crypto law bonanza raises concerns around whether agency staff can regulate groundswell — DL News Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@ — DL News Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Files Motion to Dismiss $1.8B FTX Lawsuit
The founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has filed a motion to dismiss a $1.76 billion lawsuit brought against him, Binance and other Binance executives by the FTX bankruptcy estate. Zhao's lawyers argue that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over him in the case and that he was improperly served. The motion, submitted Monday to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, contends that the legal complaint fails on multiple technical fronts. Zhao, who lists his residence as the United Arab Emirates, claims the lawsuit violated procedural norms when serving him as a non-U.S. national. The filing also asserts that Delaware courts have no personal jurisdiction over him because he has no meaningful ties to the state. "Mr. Zhao is not amenable to suit in this forum, and the statutes Plaintiffs seek to enforce do not reach the extraterritorial transactions described in the Complaint," the filing stated. "The claims are in any event legally unfounded, and many are outright incoherent. Mr. Zhao joins the motions to dismiss filed by the other Defendants," it added, referring to two similar dismissal attempts filed by other Binance executives in July. The FTX lawsuit Zhao is attempting to fend off a lawsuit originally filed in November 2024 by FTX Digital Markets Ltd. and the FTX Trading estate. The suit seeks to claw back $1.76 billion worth of crypto assets that were transferred to Binance in July 2021 as part of an equity repurchase deal. That deal involved FTX buying back a 20% stake Binance held in the exchange. The relationship between the two began in 2019, back when Binance was one of FTX's earliest backers, but later turned sour. FTX Sues Binance for $1.76 Billion, Accuses CZ of 'Reckless Disregard' for Its Customers According to the suit, Sam Bankman-Fried orchestrated the buyback using a mix of FTX-issued FTT tokens and Binance-branded assets like BUSD, later identified as funds that were allegedly misappropriated from customer deposits. The FTX estate, now managed by a restructuring team, argued the transfer was fraudulent and is seeking to recover the assets to help repay the creditors burned by FTX's 2022 implosion. In the filing, Zhao's legal team also argues that he never directly received the funds in question. 'Plaintiffs in fact show that Mr. Zhao was not a transferee,' the motion stated. 'They allege he was merely a nominal counterparty in the transfer of BUSD from Alameda LTD to Binance.' The document insisted Zhao was just a 'nominal signatory' and not the actual recipient of the assets. FTX and Binance The lawsuit goes beyond the repurchase itself, accusing Zhao of playing a broader role in destabilizing FTX. In particular, it points to a November 2022 tweet from Zhao that triggered a cascade of customer withdrawals from FTX and a run that contributed to the exchange's collapse. Caroline Ellison, former CEO of FTX-affiliated Alameda Research, testified during the Bankman-Fried trial that Alameda had to borrow over $1 billion in customer funds to pay for the Binance buyback. Prosecutors argued FTX and Alameda were likely insolvent even before the repurchase occurred. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Zhao himself also served a four-month sentence in the U.S. last year after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering rules as part of a broader $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and U.S. regulators. He stepped down as Binance CEO as part of that deal. Sign in to access your portfolio
San Francisco Chronicle
13-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Another Bay Area school district invests in teacher housing. Will it help retain employees?
The Berkeley Unified School District broke ground recently on a 110-unit affordable apartment complex for teachers and staff. The six-story complex will occupy a portion of the Berkeley Adult School parking lot at 1701 San Pablo Ave. when it opens in 2027. The $78 million project adds Berkeley Unified to a growing list of Bay Area school districts backing affordable housing for teachers and other district employees. The projects aim to prevent high housing costs from forcing teachers in the Bay Area to take on additional jobs, face long commutes or relocate to other districts altogether. Educator housing has also seen support from state policies like the Teacher Housing Act of 2016, which allowed districts to limit spots in affordable developments to educators and staff. Still, the push for teacher and staff housing is early and quite limited. California has only 12 education workforce housing projects that are occupied, near completion or under construction, according to a recent report from the California School Boards Association and researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Over half of the projects are located in the Bay Area, in cities like Santa Clara, Daly City, Mountain View and San Francisco. Still, the state has nearly 1,000 districts, meaning these subsidized units aren't a reality for most teachers. San Francisco's school district recently opened its first teacher and staff housing project, with a few more in the works. Shirley Chisholm Village — an Outer Sunset affordable housing complex developed with MidPen Housing — is now at full capacity, with 120 of 135 units occupied by district educators and employees, according to Lyn Hikida, a spokesperson at MidPen. In Berkeley, apartments will feature one, two or three bedrooms, with monthly rents estimated to range from $876 to $3,400, depending on household size and income. Renters will also have access to a shared resident center and a parking garage. Households earning between 30% and 120% of area median income — ranging from $47,940 to $191,760 for a family of four in Alameda County — are eligible and priority will be given to district employees. The average 2023-24 salary for a certified BUSD teacher was roughly $100,000, according to the California Department of Education. Last month, a California Housing Partnership report found that Alameda County renters must make a $50.73 hourly wage — or an annual income of just about $105,000 — to be able to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,638 for a two-bedroom apartment. The new project means that 'BUSD employees will have opportunities to live in the community they serve, which for many has been out of reach for a long time,' wrote Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, in a statement to the Chronicle. 'We are best able to serve our students when we live in their community.' The district expects the project to help its efforts to 'recruit and retain high quality educators' and staff 'who must grapple with the high cost of living in Berkeley and the Bay Area,' BUSD spokesperson Trish McDermott said in a statement. But whether this type of affordable development increases teacher and staff retention is still unclear. Centralized data on vacancies and turnover rates is unavailable, the CSBA report says, though anecdotal evidence appears hopeful. Interviews conducted with school districts that have developed affordable housing for staff have indicated that the availability of housing was a draw for new hires, the report found. Surveys of tenants also revealed that new hires found job offers that included affordable housing options particularly attractive. Berkeley-based developer Satellite Affordable Housing Associates will open applications for the complex six months before project completion. SAHA and co-developer Abode Communities will own and operate the property, according to Megan Folland, Abode's vice president for advancement. BUSD plans to prioritize units for full-time district employees who are homeless, followed by part-time employees who are homeless and then full-time employees and finally part-time employees. The district didn't immediately respond to a question about whether any employees are currently homeless. The project's funding comes from voter-approved city bonds and other financing mechanisms.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tether, Circle to Face Intense Competition as TradFi Enters the Arena, Fireblocks Says
The competition for stablecoin dominance is entering a third phase and companies such as Tether, issuer of the largest token, and Circle, the No. 2, are setting up their positions as the industry faces increased regulation in the form of the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regime and U.S. legislation that is working its way through Congress, according to digital asset cryptography and custody specialists Fireblocks. This latest stage will feature banks, large and small, as well as incumbent payment firms that are weighing up the best way to integrate the tokens into their existing businesses, according to Ran Goldi, SVP of payments at Fireblocks. Stablecoins, blockchain-based tokens that mimic U.S. dollars for the most part, have become big business. Tether's USDT is the clear leader, with a market cap close to $145 billion. Circle's USDC has over $60 billion in circulation and the company is considering a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The stablecoin market could grow to $2 trillion by the end of 2028, Standard Chartered said in a Tuesday note. 'We are going to see banks issuing stablecoins, as they are under MiCA,' Goldi said in an interview. 'You are seeing financial institutions that are fintechs entering such as Robinhood, Ripple and Revolut. By the end of this year, you are going to see maybe 50 more stablecoins." The industry has already passed through two stages, Goldi said. The first occurred when USDC went up against U.S. regulated trading firm Paxos, which had partnered with crypto exchange Binance to issue BUSD. For regulatory reasons Paxos had to drop BUSD and so Circle won that round, Goldi said, adding that Paxos' new USDG consortium is growing in stature and likely to play a major role in the future. The second stage was between Circle and Tether. 'USDC was trying to be bigger than USDT, but then USDC tumbled a bit with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank etc. It was harder for people to accept that product, especially people outside the U.S. Meanwhile USDT has really grown tremendously. I think USDT will remain the dominant dollar stablecoin outside of the U.S. I believe Circle will have to put up a really good fight, which they've done in the past and are very good at doing.' It's worth noting, though, that USDC is licensed under MiCA, giving it access to 27 EU nations with a total population of about 450 million people. USDT is not. Stablecoins grew to prominence as an essential way of moving money between volatile cryptocurrencies, meeting a particular need given the industry's shortage of fiat on and off ramps. Dollar-pegged coins of various sorts blossomed further with the explosion of decentralized finance (DeFi). Looking further back, the early days of crypto show an evolution of payment service providers (PSPs), starting with those who wanted to use cryptocurrencies to settle their bills. This was followed by a second wave of business-to-business PSPs like Bridge, recently acquired by Stripe, and Zero Hash, Alfred Pay, Conduit and others. 'Some of these PSPs are firms you may not have heard much about, but they are actually moving billions in stablecoins, servicing businesses to pay to other businesses most of the time,' Goldi said. He pointed out that less than 20% of Fireblocks' total transaction volume was stablecoins in 2020, increasing to some 54% last year. For a typical use case, consider an importer in Brazil that wants to bring in a container and pay someone in Turkey or in Singapore. It takes the Brazilian reals, converts them to a stablecoin, and either sends the funds directly to the exporter or changes them to the destination currency and pays with that, Goldi said. Some banks have already caught on to the cross-border payments use case, with the likes of Braza Bank in Brazil, BTG Bank and DBS in Singapore catering to business clients with accounts that support stablecoins. Others are still weighing the best use case for them. 'We have been approached by dozens of banks,' Goldi said. 'They are asking whether they should be on/off ramps, or holding reserves, or perhaps they are thinking about issuing a stablecoin. There are several things banks can do to make money out of stablecoins, from credit to on/off ramps to FX.' Based on those conversations, Goldi said he believes most of the banks are writing strategic plans that will probably be submitted by the end of this quarter. 'It will be interesting to see if banks build something on their own, or use BNY Mellon, for instance, that serves banks, or a vendor like Fireblocks. I think the large tier-1 banks like JPMorgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley will build their own tech, while the tier-2 banks will want to use some hosted tech provider,' Goldi said. 'Of course they are banks and they move slowly, so I think they would be looking to approve those plans by the end of this year and perhaps do something in 2026."
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
7th Annual Black History Oratorical Festival crowns winners in Berkeley
The Brief Students from Berkeley Unified School District participated in an oratorical festival that honors the artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Students from elementary, middle and high schools joined in at the event. Students from Silvia Mendez Elementary School and Willard Middle School won the competition. BERKELEY, Calif. - Students from the Berkeley Unified School District dove into the history of the Harlem Renaissance on Wednesday at the seventh annual Black History Oratorical Festival in Berkeley. "We are fifth graders, standing on a stage, remembering our past and telling our future…" Saba Mazzola and Linnea Montano recited. "African American people of the diaspora have a rich tradition in oration, in telling our story…it is a part of our legacy," Jazz Hudson, an emcee for the event and an educator with BUSD told KTVU. Dig deeper A blend of old and new works, the student performers in Wednesday's festival are already winners. Each group was selected as a finalist after performing at their school. Families were thrilled to see their students on stage, particularly honoring Black history. "It's one of the most essential things we do in our country because it's our history… It's all of our history," Billie Connolly, a grandmother of a BUSD performer, told KTVU. Some students shared works written during the Harlem Renaissance, a period known for its prolific Black writers and artists. While others shared their own words, inspired by the great awakening in Harlem. While the festival is a competition, the educators at the event say it holds a much bigger meaning. "Oftentimes in America, we think about legacy as something that you leave behind, but I like to think of it as something that evolves from what you leave behind," Hudson said. "And these young people represent the living legacy of the history of the Harlem Renaissance. " Hudson said.
