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Stablecoin Issuer Tether Plots Europe Expansion With CitiPay Investment
Stablecoin issuer Tether has doubled down on its bet in CitiPay, a payments startup with extensive roots in Eastern Europe
Stablecoin issuer Tether has doubled down on its bet in CitiPay, a payments startup with extensive roots in Eastern Europe
USDT issuer Tether has announced plans to extend its presence across Eastern Europe. The crypto firm intends to achieve this feat with an additional investment in the payment processing platform CitiPay.io. Notably, this is not Tether’s first time the stablecoin issuer is injecting capital into CitiPay.
Both firms have a relationship that go way back to 2023. This was the time Tether became the first stablecoin to invest in the Georgia-based payment solutions provider.
The decision to move into the Eastern Europe comes only a few weeks after the stablecoin issuer unveiled its journey to expand its services beyond stablecoins. Tether indicated its interest in delving into a range of infrastructure solutions including data, finance, power, and education.
The exact value of the investment in yet to be made public. However, but Tether highlighted that it would play a huge role in enhancing CitiPay.io’s expansion in the proposed region. At the moment, CitiPay.io already offers its services to users in several jurisdictions. Among its goals is the focus to provide users with convenient payment services.
For context, CitiPay.io customers can pay for services offered by establishments such as Wendy’s and Radisson Hotels with their crypto holdings. The startup intends to expand its services within the next two years to include e-wallet and card solutions. This is likely to attract a user base of more 400,000 users, according to CitiPay.io.
As part of the deal with Tether, the firm is also working on establishing about 500,000 crypto pay points in regions that fall under its expansion. This includes Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Looking at the countries featured on the list, it suggests that CitiPay.io is focused on emerging markets that are committed to the use of payment technologies and cryptocurrencies.
Tether is positive about the prospects of this alliance in the long run. The stablecoin issuer drew its inferences from the previous investment made into CitiPay.io.
“Our previous collaboration with CityPay.io yielded exciting results in expanding convenient cryptocurrency use across Georgia,” Tether CEO Paul Ardoino said. “With this second investment, we aim to build on those results and drive the adoption of cutting-edge technologies that disrupt traditional payment systems.”
Markedly, this is only one out of the many investments that Tether has recorded in the last few months. Less than two weeks ago, Tether announced a strategic investment of $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech to boost brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. This company is a prominent rival of Elon Musk’s neural implant firm Neuralink.
Generally, Tether appears to be regaining its position in
the crypto market. Its last attestation report for the first quarter of FY24
underscores this sentiment.
The entry price for this order is very attractive as some analysts believe that ONDO's reasonable price is in the range of 0.4-0.7 USD. With a significant investment beyond the expected scope, Lookonchain suspected the whale had an insider.
Someone created a new wallet 27 hours ago and withdrew 1,870.68 $ETH ($5.7M) from #Gemini .
Then he spent the 1,870 $ETH ($5.7M) to buy 6M $ONDO at an average price of $0.95 in the past 27 hours.
Does this guy know something that we don't? https://t.co/3ZQ6s6SnVM pic.twitter.com/G1udIF8Mhw
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 17, 2024
This transaction attracted the attention of the crypto community and ONDO, the native token of Ondo Finance, skyrocketed 11% immediately after the purchase.
However, ONDO has dropped after the latest bounce and is trading below the $1 threshold at the time of writing. However, ONDO is still increasing by more than 19% over the past week.
Crypto analyst Mags commented on the price movement, sharing analysis on the next price target for ONDO.
“If the price closes above 1 USD, the next target will be 1.4 USD and 2.7 USD or more.”
$ONDO keeps printing up +131%
$1.5 Incoming, Binance listing soon 👀 https://t.co/bF8lznNDOP pic.twitter.com/5v95S4aZvn
— Mags (@thescalpingpro) March 25, 2024
A whale created a new wallet on May 16 and withdrew 1,870.68 ETH (worth $5.7 million) from the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange to buy 6 million ONDO tokens at an average price of 0, 95 USD.
The entry price for this order is very attractive as some analysts believe that ONDO's reasonable price is in the range of 0.4-0.7 USD. With a significant investment beyond the expected scope, Lookonchain suspected the whale had an insider.
Someone created a new wallet 27 hours ago and withdrew 1,870.68 $ETH ($5.7M) from #Gemini .
Then he spent the 1,870 $ETH ($5.7M) to buy 6M $ONDO at an average price of $0.95 in the past 27 hours.
Does this guy know something that we don't? https://t.co/3ZQ6s6SnVM pic.twitter.com/G1udIF8Mhw
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 17, 2024
This transaction attracted the attention of the crypto community and ONDO, the native token of Ondo Finance, skyrocketed 11% immediately after the purchase.
However, ONDO has dropped after the latest bounce and is trading below the $1 threshold at the time of writing. However, ONDO is still increasing by more than 19% over the past week.
Crypto analyst Mags commented on the price movement, sharing analysis on the next price target for ONDO.
“If the price closes above 1 USD, the next target will be 1.4 USD and 2.7 USD or more.”
$ONDO keeps printing up +131%
$1.5 Incoming, Binance listing soon 👀 https://t.co/bF8lznNDOP pic.twitter.com/5v95S4aZvn
— Mags (@thescalpingpro) March 25, 2024
Fantom (FTM), a once famous layer-1 blockchain, is receiving attention again ahead of an important upgrade called Sonic.
On the evening of May 17, the Fantom Foundation posted an important governance proposal, announcing to the community a new project called Sonic Network (S). Sonic Network is a new layer-1 blockchain developed by Fantom on the new Sonic technology platform, replacing Fantom's old Opera version.
https://x.com/FantomFDN/status/1791517798205907116
Once the Sonic Network is deployed, FTM holders will be able to redeem tokens 1:1 for the Sonic network currency called S. Those who do not want to redeem can still continue to hold FTM. However, the Fantom Foundation encourages users to migrate to the new network as all the attention and development effort of the project will be transferred here.
The rest of the proposal retains the changes that were mentioned in the Sonic upgrade announcement at the beginning of the year.
Both Fantom's FTM and TVL token prices have increased more than 30% in the last 7 days, the clearest signal that money is being poured back into the project.
Specifically, while the FTM price increased from 0.64 USD to 0.84 USD, the value locked (TVL) of Fantom increased to 200 million USD on May 16, before decreasing to 129 million USD at the time of writing. This is the highest TVL level that Fantom has achieved since July 2023, when the Multichain hack occurred, causing heavy damage to the ecosystem.
