Cryptocurrency prices were lower on July 25, while a congressional committee looks to advance a bill on stablecoins and a major bank bought a stake in a crypto custodian firm.
Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was down 2.7% to $21,923.67 at last check, according to CoinGecko, while ether slipped 3.5% to $1,525.14, and dogecoin dropped 4.2% to $0.065145.
In regulatory news, the House Financial Services Committee reportedly plans to advance its stablecoin bill as soon as July 27.
‘Payment Stablecoins’
A stablecoin is a digital currency whose value is pegged to a stable reserve asset, like the U.S. dollar, the euro or gold.
Stablecoins are intended to provide some level of comfort to investors. But that was shattered in May by the collapse of the stablecoin UST, also called TerraUSD, and its sister token, Luna.
David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser at Lesperance & Associates, said the current legislation would require stablecoin issuers to maintain 100% reserves and bar them from lending stablecoins to customers.
Under the legislation, he said, stablecoins would be known as “payment stablecoins,” and bank and nonbank issuers would operate under the same regulations.
The Federal Reserve would license any nonbank stablecoin issuers and would be responsible for monitoring those firms’ financial health.
“There would also be strict rules on the types of assets that can back stablecoins and a prohibition on commercial companies such as…
