Latest news with #USDE
Axios
29-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
The stablecoin biz is developing fast
Stablecoin legislation is already having a big impact and neither chamber has even had a floor vote on it yet. The big picture: Stablecoin projects are coming fast and furious, fueled by expectations of a liquidity wave once the world's biggest economy gives its official nod. Standard Chartered experts project stablecoins to become a multitrillion-dollar category by 2028 if legislation passes that sanctions the sector. Context: That's comparable to the entire industry's market cap today. New entrants will find that stablecoins are a good business as long as interest rates aren't zero. Backed by reserves, usually U.S. Treasuries, they're a great business if rates are high. But that's a lot of sensitivity to forces outside your control, as Coin Metrics points out in its review of Circle's S-1. It also helps if your token is really popular, and it turns out that competing for market share is expensive. New trends are emerging. Some might not be as profitable, and others may not even be permitted out of the gate. Yield-bearing stablecoins could help attract market share. But they could also chip into an issuer's profits, even when rates are strong. Circle has gotten ahead of the trend by acquiring a coin designed for yield, USYC. Other products are coming at a steady clip. We've mentioned the $5 billion synthetic dollar, USDE, before, but another such delta-neutral stablecoin with yield built in got seed funding this week, NUSD. (Stablecoin legislation looks likely to forbid those kinds of tokens here — for now.) Zoom out: There's also more to the stablecoin industry than just issuing the tokens. Startups are forming to build out the use case beyond market liquidity, including companies that use stablecoins for remittances, payroll, cross-border transactions and treasury management. FalconX, one of the custody firms from the prior item, projects perhaps 50 new entrants to the stablecoin market this year (and the company is in a good position to do better than guess).
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Some federal student loan collections resume May 5. What does it mean for Ohio borrowers?
The U.S. Department of Education will soon start federal student loan collections for certain accounts on May 5. But what does this mean for Ohio? USDE announced Monday Federal student loan collections are currently on pause until May 5. The Biden-Harris administration refused to lift the pause in October 2023, after Congress mandated that student and parent borrowers should begin to repay their student loans. According to the DOE press release, this act by the previous administration "failed to process applications for borrowers who applied for income-driven repayment and continued to push misguided 'on-ramps' and illegal loan forgiveness schemes to win points with borrowers and mask rising delinquency and default rates." The press release states that resuming student loan collections will "protect taxpayers." Lifting the pause will also be accompanied by information to ensure borrowers understand how to resume repayment or exit default. On Monday, May 5, Federal Student Aid will restart its Treasury Offset Program, administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. If you're a federal student loan borrower, you should receive an email about loan repayments over the next two weeks. Borrowers will have to contact the Default Resolution Group to make a monthly payment, enroll in an income-driven repayment plan, or sign up for loan rehabilitation. This campaign is meant to "restore commonsense and fairness" by urging student and parent borrowers to repay their loans. The department has also authorized guaranty agencies to begin involuntary collections activities for loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program. According to a 2024 study, Ohio takes the No. 9 spot for the states with the most student loan debt. The ranking compared all 50 states' average student loan debt along with the unemployment rate among 25 to 34-year-olds. Ohio is one of the top states that bear the burden of student debt. Additionally, Ohio was No. 7 for the student debt-to-income ratio and in the top 20 for the proportion of students with debt and the average amount of student debt. Nationally, 42.7 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 trillion in student debt, according to the DOE press release. Roughly 5.3 million student loan borrowers in the U.S. are currently in default, according to PBS. According to an earlier estimate, the Department of Education's budget for Ohio for fiscal year 2025 estimate is more than $5.65 billion, according to the DOE financial preview. In 2024, the funding estimate was over $5.48 billion. The 2025 estimate represents 3.08% of the DOE's estimated $183.4 billion expenditure in 2025. DOE's most recent data for Ohio's total funding is from the year 2023, with a total of nearly $5.25 billion. Ohio's Department of Education and Workforce reports that Ohio has spent more on primary and secondary education than ever before, with $13.44 billion appropriated for 2025. In March, the Trump Administration said it pledged to dismantle the Education Department. Created by Congress in 1979, the U.S. Department of Education is a cabinet-level government department focused on promoting educational excellence, enhancing student achievement and readiness for global competition, and guaranteeing equal access for students of all ages, according to its website. Here's why the Department of Education was established: Strengthen the federal commitment to equal educational opportunity for all people. Support states, local school systems, the private sector, educational institutions, research institutions, community organizations, parents, and students in improving education quality. Encourage public, parent and student involvement in federal education programs. Advance education quality through federal research and information sharing. Improve the coordination of federal education programs. Enhance management and efficiency of federal education activities by simplifying processes, reducing administrative burdens, and minimizing unnecessary paperwork for fund recipients. Increase the accountability of federal education programs to the president, Congress and the public. Funding to public schools serving millions of students. Manage college financial aid, Pell Grants, and oversee federal student loans. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Some federal student loan collections resume May 5. More on Ohio impact
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USDE yield strategy explained: Ethena and FalconX execs break It down
Decentralized finance (DeFi) continues to innovate with yield-bearing stablecoins, and one of the newest products generating buzz is USDE — a token backed by a hybrid strategy of crypto and traditional markets. Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, told David Brickell - Head of International Distribution at FRNT Financial on Crypto Options Unplugged by Deribit podcast that the platform uses BTC and SOL collateral alongside one short positions on both perpetuals and futures to generate yield. When conditions shift, Ethena can rotate into USDtb — a Treasury-backed model — capturing legacy market rates. 'On rough numbers, the average APR you saw from SUSD in the last year was 18% for the average through 2024,' Young noted. A unique aspect of USDE is its two-token model: the basic USDE for transactions and SUSD for staking. The design lets Ethena benefit when users don't stake. 'We did have periods where we're capturing 50%, 60% of the entire rate back to Ethena in the beginning,' Young said, adding that this margin is often used to amplify yield to stakers. Ethena's B2B integration with centralized exchanges further boosts usability. 'All the centralized exchanges... just airdrop the implied return to their users on a daily basis with no withdrawal queue,' Young said, highlighting the daily liquidity advantage. Another key insight is how USDE impacts exchange dynamics, especially on platforms like Deribit. 'You're importing higher funding rates from different exchanges onto Deribit... transforming [positions] from a negative carry position to one that's extremely positive,' Young explained. Joshua Lim, global co-head of markets at FalconX, emphasized the trading benefits of yield-bearing stablecoins like USDE. 'It obviously is more efficient from a capital usage perspective... especially in underlying assets that are less actively traded,' Lim said. With cross-margining, traders can manage positions without sourcing collateral for each asset individually. USDE is particularly useful as collateral across multiple exchanges. 'It's really interesting to think about USDE... to import risk that lives on centralized exchanges to DeFi,' Lim concluded. As both trading firms and DeFi protocols converge, USDE is emerging as a bridge between yield, liquidity, and next-gen financial infrastructure.
Politico
01-04-2025
- Business
- Politico
States scramble to address ‘catastrophic' halt to federal pandemic education aid
State education superintendents and elected officials scrambled on Monday to assess how schools across the country will absorb the Trump administration's move to halt payouts on billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid, while warning that construction and tutoring programs could stop without a resolution. New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said his state was facing a 'devastating federal funding cut from the Trump Administration' of $85 million — an assertion that prompted rebuke from the federal Education Department. Michigan officials said their schools stood to lose approximately $40 million already committed to projects including heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. And Maryland authorities declared the state could lose hundreds of millions of dollars that help pay for programs including literacy, tutoring, infrastructure and summer school initiatives. 'Shock does not begin to describe our reaction when we received the notification,' of Friday's decision from the Education Department , Maryland schools chief Carey Wright told reporters. 'The USDE's decision is catastrophic,' Wright said of the federal agency. 'These funds have been spent or committed with every expectation of reimbursement.' Schools were required to finalize plans to use the last of nearly $130 billion in federal Covid-19 relief aid by September 2024 and liquidate the money by January, unless they won a reprieve from the Biden administration. Those 'liquidation extension' requests could have allowed schools to spend the federal money on previously approved, ongoing projects through early next year. States still had to liquidate approximately $2.5 billion in American Rescue Plan funds meant for elementary and high schools as of early March, according to a department summary obtained by POLITICO. Hundreds of millions dollars worth of additional funds for homeless students and private schools were also awaiting final liquidation by that time. Dozens of states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, had received approval for the extended federal reimbursement timetable. Education Secretary Linda McMahon then announced on Friday that the department 'has reconsidered' those requests in a letter obtained by POLITICO . 'Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department's priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion,' McMahon wrote. She added that governments could reapply for spending extensions on individual projects. Murphy, however, was among state officials who suggested the abrupt end to the federal initiative has sparked a growing sense of crisis. 'These cuts are reckless and irresponsible, allowing us very little time for contingency plans,' Murphy said in a statement . 'At a time of unprecedented chaos and uncertainty at the federal level, Washington is failing the next generation.' Infrastructure projects in 20 New Jersey school districts would be affected, Murphy said. The Education Department retorted that Murphy 'doesn't know what he is talking about,' in a series of social media posts on Monday. 'New Jersey is continuing to receive all recurring federal education funds — but his COVID slush fund is over,' the department said. Local school officials had pressed former President Joe Biden's administration for added breathing room to spend relief funds signed into law under the American Rescue Plan — arguing that a constellation of pandemic-era staffing challenges, vendor contract negotiations and construction concerns required government approval to stretch spending timetables through next year. 'Walking back a federal commitment to pandemic relief funds to improve the air quality, healthfulness, and safety of schools coming out of the pandemic is unacceptable,' Michigan state schools Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement . Twenty-seven Michigan school districts have struck contracts to replace ventilation systems, boilers and windows, he said. 'Without the promised March 2026 date for federal reimbursement requests, districts may be forced to reduce instructional expenditures for students, diminish savings, or both to honor these contracts,' Rice said. Multiple state school systems contacted by POLITICO on Monday said they were still trying to assess the decision's impact on their communities, or they did not respond to requests for comment. Maryland school officials, meanwhile, said they were consulting with the state attorney general's office and exploring their legal options. 'We're still in, I think, a state of confusion,' Wright said Monday.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here are the 51 institutions the Department of Education says its investigating for race-based discrimination
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WBOY) — After the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) began investigating 60 institutions for alleged antisemitism earlier this week, the department has now launched a separate investigation into 52 institutions alleging they discriminated against students based on race. In a release put out Friday, the USDE said that its Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has opened investigations into 45 universities alleging that they violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with 'The Ph.D. Project,' a project that helps aspiring doctoral students earn a Ph.D. The OCR claims that the program limited eligibility based on the participants' race. On top of that action, the OCR has also launched investigations into six other institutions for 'allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships' and another into a single institution for 'allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.' Trump demands admissions overhaul and influence over academics at Columbia University The 45 schools under investigation for partnering with 'The Ph.D. Project' are as follows. Arizona State University – Main Campus Boise State University Cal Poly Humboldt California State University – San Bernadino Carnegie Mellon University Clemson University Cornell University Duke University Emory University George Mason University Georgetown University Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Montana State University-Bozeman New York University (NYU) Rice University Rutgers University The Ohio State University – Main Campus Towson University Tulane University University of Arkansas – Fayetteville University of California-Berkeley University of Chicago University of Cincinnati – Main Campus University of Colorado – Colorado Springs University of Delaware University of Kansas University of Kentucky University of Michigan-Ann Arbor University of Minnesota-Twin Cities University of Nebraska at Omaha University of New Mexico – Main Campus University of North Dakota – Main Campus University of North Texas – Denton University of Notre Dame University of Nevada – Las Vegas University of Oregon University of Rhode Island University of Utah University of Washington-Seattle University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Wyoming Vanderbilt University Washington State University Washington University in St. Louis Yale University The seven schools being investigated for alleged race-based scholarships and race-based segregation are: Grand Valley State University Ithaca College New England College of Optometry University of Alabama University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of South Florida University of Oklahoma, Tulsa School of Community Medicine Some schools on this list have already issued responses to the investigations, including The Ohio State University, which told the Associated Press that it 'does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
