On Saturday, March 11, 2023, crypto advocates are concerned as a few stablecoin assets have depegged from their $1 parity. The second-largest stablecoin USDC, issued by Circle Financial, fell below $0.90, reaching a low of $0.877 per coin. Additionally, around five other stablecoins have dropped below the U.S. dollar parity during the early morning (ET) trading sessions on Saturday.

Major Crypto Exchanges Suspend USDC Trades as Concerns Mount

On March 11, 2023, stablecoin assets are having a rough day after Circle Financial announced that $3.3 billion of the cash backing usd coin (USDC) was held at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). This news has caused USDC to depeg from the U.S. dollar, dropping to a low of $0.877 per coin on Saturday. As of 7:45 a.m. ET, USDC is currently trading at $0.91 per unit, up 3% from the low of $0.87.

We are temporarily pausing purchases using USDC on Ethereum and Polygon. We have also paused loads to the BitPay Card in the app. Further updates will follow here.

— BitPay (@BitPay) March 11, 2023

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Following the depegging of USDC, several major crypto exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase, have suspended USDC trades. “Binance has temporarily suspended auto-conversion of USDC to BUSD due to current market conditions, specifically related to high inflows & the increasing burden to support the conversion,” Binance tweeted. “This is a normal risk-management procedural step to take while we monitor the situation.”

Coinbase stated: “We are temporarily pausing USDC:USD conversions over the weekend while banks are closed. During periods of heightened activity, conversions rely on USD transfers from the banks that clear during normal banking hours. When banks open on Monday, we plan to re-commence conversions.” The crypto payment processor Bitpay has also paused USDC payments and debit card loads.

The Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com also suspended USDC deposits on March 11. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have temporarily suspended USDC to USD conversion, USDC deposit, and USDC pair trading due to current market conditions. USDC withdrawal remains available,” the company said on Saturday. “We will continue to evaluate the situation and plan to resume USDC trading as soon as possible.”

The depegging of USDC has caused a ripple effect of depegging issues for five different stablecoin projects, including GUSD, DAI, FRAX, USDP, and USDD. FRAX is currently trading for $0.91, USDD is swapping for $0.94, USDP is trading for $0.95, DAI is changing hands for $0.92, and GUSD is trading for $0.97 per unit. The largest stablecoin by market capitalization, tether (USDT), has remained within the $0.99 to $1 range since the SVB issues began.

What are your thoughts on the challenges facing stablecoins today? Share your views on this topic in the comments section below.

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Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman complained on Twitter Wednesday that he was experiencing issues with the centralized payment processor Venmo. His tweet was followed by a barrage of bitcoin supporters who insisted that Krugman was now realizing the importance of censorship-resistant payment systems.

Krugman’s Experience Highlights the Growing Interest in Censorship-Resistant Payment Systems

Nobel Prize winner and author Paul Krugman, who famously wrote in 1998 that “by 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s,” had issues with a third-party payment provider. On Wednesday, Krugman announced on Twitter that he was busy but needed to explain the situation.

“Too busy to tweet. But not to vent,” Krugman said. “I’ve been using Venmo for years, but now it won’t allow me to make payments. I spent a long time in chat with representatives, and they told me that they can’t explain why — or fix it. The software has taken control.”

Paul Krugman follows the school of Keynesian economics and has been a long-time skeptic of bitcoin. He was quickly criticized by several bitcoin proponents, including Microstrategy’s Michael Saylor, who insisted that “Bitcoin fixes this.”

One Twitter user even quoted Krugman, asking “Exactly what is [bitcoin] supposed to be doing that we don’t already mostly do?” In the past, the economist has compared the cryptocurrency market to the subprime mortgage crash and is well-known for his skepticism toward bitcoin.

Krugman expressed his frustration with Venmo on Twitter, and the thread quickly became filled with commentary about bitcoin. Despite numerous statements, the economist did not respond to the crypto fans. One individual quoted from the bitcoin white paper, saying “Try a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

Shortly after Krugman’s first tweet, the economist explained that his tweet helped resolve his issue with Venmo. “And tweeting got results. A representative called and we seem to be up again,” Krugman told his 4.5 million social media followers. Krugman’s experience with Venmo is not unique, as billionaire Mark Mobius recently detailed his own difficulties in getting funds out of HSBC China. Mobius’s issues were also criticized by bitcoin enthusiasts, who pointed out that he should understand the importance of censorship-resistant money like bitcoin.

What are your thoughts on Paul Krugman’s Venmo issues and the criticism he received from bitcoin supporters over his views on cryptocurrency? Share your thoughts on this subject in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Despite a 9.95% increase last week and the all-time high difficulty, bitcoin’s hashrate has averaged around 305 exahash per second (EH/s) over the past 30 days. According to current data, the hashrate has been around 308 EH/s over the past 2,016 blocks. The next difficulty change, set to occur on March 10, is estimated to increase again, as block times have been faster than the 10-minute average, coming in at 8 minutes and 30 seconds to 9 minutes and 41 seconds per block.

Bitcoin’s Network Difficulty Projected to Rise; Hash Price Remains Above Hash Value

Bitcoin’s computational power has remained high despite a 9.95% difficulty increase on Feb. 24, 2023, at block height 778,176. Statistics show that on Sunday, March 5, the difficulty is estimated to increase by more than 3% during the next difficulty retarget on March 10. While the difficulty is a staggering 43.05 trillion hashes and the cost to mine is higher than the current spot value, the 300 EH/s range or higher has been the norm since the last retarget.

Currently, more than 60,000 blocks are left to mine until the next halving, and over the past 30 days, 4,557 blocks were mined, with Foundry USA discovering 1,514 of them. Foundry commands 34.44% of the global hashrate, or 113.45 EH/s over the past 24 hours. Out of the 151 blocks mined, Foundry discovered 52, and three-day statistics show the pool has acquired 163 blocks.

Thirty-day, three-day, and 24-hour statistics indicate that Antpool is the second-largest mining pool during those periods. Out of the 4,557 blocks mined since Feb. 5, 2023, Antpool discovered 815 blocks, accounting for 17.88% of the global hashrate in a month’s time. Foundry and Antpool were followed by F2Pool (14.99%), Binance Pool (11.24%), and Viabtc (8.03%).

Bitcoin miners have been dealing with lower BTC spot prices as the price has dropped more than 8% over the past two weeks. Miners were earning more fees (the cost to send transactions) from the Ordinal inscription trend as fees jumped to 3.5% of a block reward value on Feb. 16. Bitcoin network fees dropped to 1.5% of a block reward four days later.

Data shows that network fees equate to 2.1% of a block reward at the time of writing. Despite the challenges, many bitcoin mining pools have remained strong and contributed to an increase in the global hashrate. However, the higher cost of production compared to the current spot market price and the continual increase in difficulty may dissuade some mining operations from participating.

What do you think the future holds for bitcoin miners, given the expected increase in difficulty and the current market uncertainty? Share your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.