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On The Brink with Castle Island


Apr 12, 2021

The Block's Director of Research Larry Cermak and Research Analyst Mike Rogers join the show to talk through their latest report on stablecoins. In this episode: 

  • Why the Block chose to focus on stablecoins for this report
  • Larry and Mike's opinion on why stablecoins are so disproportionately dollar-based
  • China's influence in the Tether market
  • The history of Tether and why it attained so much traction initially
  • How you can determine the location of stablecoin users
  • The Tetherification for offshore exchanges – and how it displaced Bitcoin as the reserve asset
  • The influence of USDC in DeFi and whether it represents a systemic risk to the sector
  • Dai's transition to non-native collateral types
  • Mike and Larry's view of algorithmic stablecoins
  • Why stablecoins are so divisive between economists and crypto entrepreneurs
  • Why Tether's dominance is declining
  • Where the NYAG settlement leaves Tether now
  • What Larry makes of USDT on TRON stealing some market share from Ethereum
  • Why investors are settling deals in stablecoin terms
  • The prospects for Libra/Diem
  • Mike and Larry's expectations for the next decade in stablecoins

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