Binance Pay will let overseas users spend USDT at most PayPay-supported merchants in Japan through HIVEX, while stores receive yen. Binance Pay will allow eligible overseas users visiting Japan to spend Tether USDt (USDT) at the vast majority of PayPay-supported merchants starting Wednesday. The service will run through HIVEX, a payment interoperability framework that connects overseas QR payment services to PayPay-supported merchants in Japan. Merchants will continue receiving settlement in yen. Binance told Cointelegraph it is the first crypto payment service to access PayPay-supported merchants through HIVEX. Merchants will not need to opt in separately, it said. Read more
Tether’s USDT stablecoin was part of a failed oil trade that reportedly cost a Polish energy giant $230 million in late 2023. The world’s largest stablecoin by market cap, Tether’s USDt, was reportedly used in a failed Venezuelan oil trade that cost Poland’s largest energy giant $230 million in late 2023, according to the Financial Times. That was after the Caracas-based state oil company, PDVSA, began demanding partial payments in USDT as a workaround to US financial sanctions. The $230 million was an advance payment paid largely in Tether USDt (USDT) in an oil trade orchestrated by Samer Awad, a former executive at Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS), a trading subsidiary of Poland’s state-controlled energy giant, Orlen, to acquire 6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil in November 2023 from state-owned PDVSA, the news outlet reported on Tuesday. Read more
Tether froze $61.19 million across 10 Tron addresses in 2025 that prosecutors allege were connected to black-market Iranian oil proceeds. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking forfeiture of more than $61 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, alleging the funds came from black-market sales of sanctioned Iranian oil and were intended to finance Iran’s government and military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). On Monday, the DOJ alleged that Blessed Trust and Hexa Whale, both incorporated in Hong Kong, used Binance accounts to move proceeds from oil sold to buyers in China. A network of related addresses allegedly received and distributed more than $1.5 billion, including transfers to IRGC-linked money-transfer businesses, cryptocurrency addresses and an Iranian exchange. A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Binance did not permit transactions with sanctioned individuals and would continue cooperating with law enforcement, including by investigating, restricting or freezin...
Russia’s largest bank, Sber, plans to accept USDT and Ether alongside Bitcoin as loan collateral as the country introduces regulated crypto trading under a new law. Russia’s largest bank, Sber, plans to expand its crypto-backed lending to accept Tether’s USDt stablecoin and Ether as collateral alongside Bitcoin, according to a senior executive. Sber will adapt its existing products and gradually expand its offerings as Russia’s new crypto law takes effect, Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov said, according to a Friday TASS report. The bank plans to add the assets as collateral after the Bank of Russia permits them for public trading, he said. The plans come as Russia rolls out a regulated crypto market under a law signed by president Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4, with core provisions taking effect Sept. 1. Read more
USDT is disappearing from regulated European platforms, but there is little sign that it has resulted in weakening global demand for Tether. Europe’s crackdown on Tether’s USDT is entering a new phase. When Revolut told European users it would delist USDT after Aug. 31, it became another in a long line of European platforms restricting access to the world’s largest stablecoin as firms adapt to the requirements of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. MiCA’s stablecoin rules have been phasing in since 2024, and the EU-wide transition period ended on July 1, putting further pressure on platforms to drop tokens that don’t meet the rules. Read more
Russia’s central bank proposed allowing Bitcoin, Ether and USDT to trade on regulated exchanges, following a law signed by President Vladimir Putin last week. Russia’s central bank has compiled a proposed list of crypto assets that could be admitted to public trading on exchanges under new rules approved last week. The list includes Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s stablecoin USDT, the Bank of Russia said Tuesday, adding that the assets meet criteria including market capitalization, average daily trading volume and at least five years of price history on overseas markets. The proposal follows a new law, signed by President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4, that gives the Bank of Russia authority to determine which digital currencies can be admitted to organized trading and set related rules. Read more
Bitcoin analysis suggested that sell pressure would not increase given the historically large contraction in USDT market cap over a 60-day period. Biggest stablecoin Tether (USDT) has shed $4 billion in market cap in just two months, but history suggests that the downturn is nearly over. Key points: Onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant in a blog post last week flagged market cap “undergoing one of its sharpest contractions on record.” Read more
The feature offers European customers a voluntary path away from Tether’s USDT as MiCA rules reshape the region’s stablecoin market. OKX Europe has launched a one-way conversion feature allowing customers to deposit USDT and convert it into USDC, offering a regulated migration path as the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules limit support for the world’s largest stablecoin. According to a company announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the feature lets customers deposit Tether’s USDt (USDT) into their OKX Europe account and convert the tokens into USDC (USDC), one of the largest stablecoins available under the European Union’s MiCA framework. Tether has not obtained authorization to issue USDT under MiCA, prompting many European platforms to restrict deposits, delist trading pairs or convert customer balances into compliant alternatives as the European Union completed the framework’s rollout on July 1. Read more
As foreign currency reserves remain under pressure, Bolivia is considering a framework to let the world’s largest stablecoin be used for payments, savings and trade. Bolivia is evaluating integrating Tether's USDt into its national payments system, a move that could mark one of Latin America's most significant stablecoin adoption initiatives as the country grapples with a persistent shortage of US dollars. Economy and Public Finance Minister Jose Gabriel Espinoza told a press conference on Monday that the government is assessing a regulatory framework that would allow USDT to circulate “as just another currency,” alongside the boliviano and the US dollar. According to the Spanish news outlet CriptoNoticias, the framework is still under review and, if adopted, would recognize USDT for everyday transactions, including payments, savings and trade, without relying exclusively on cash or the traditional banking system. Read more
Hyundai completed a proof-of-concept using Tether's USDT to settle a cross-border treasury transfer between its US and Mexican subsidiaries, highlighting growing enterprise interest in stablecoin-based payments. Hyundai Motor's US and Mexican units completed a pilot cross-border treasury transfer using Tether's USDT stablecoin, settling a $20,000 payment in about seven minutes on the Avalanche blockchain. According to Tether, Hyundai Motor America converted the funds into USDT, transferred the stablecoin to Hyundai Motor Mexico and converted it back into US dollars. The transfer and verification process took about seven minutes, compared with three to four hours or more for a traditional cross-border bank transfer. Tether said the pilot used Axiym's settlement infrastructure, while Hyundai Card designed the remittance structure and oversaw the regulatory, compliance, accounting and operational requirements needed to support the proof of concept. Read more