The total market capitalization of the leading stablecoin, Tether’s USDT, has hit an all-time high of $83.2 billion, beating its all-time high established a year ago and offsetting the $18 billion market cap deflation triggered by UST’s fall from grace.

The issuer of the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization USDC, Circle, has revealed it’s set to natively launch the stablecoin on the Arbitrum blockchain, in a move meant to replace the liquidity that had been previously bridged.

Nike has announced that its non-fungible token (NFT) platform, .Swoosh, is set to be incorporated within EA Sports games in an integration that opens up the possibility for Nike's virtual apparel and footwear to make appearances in game scenarios.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Tether’s USDT Hits New High Above $83 Billion Market Cap
• USDC to Launch Natively on Arbitrum Blockchain
• Nike NFTs to Appear in EA Sports Games
• Crypto Market Movers – RNDR, OCEAN, KAVA

Tether’s USDT Hits New High Above $83 Billion Market Cap

The total market capitalization of the leading stablecoin, Tether’s USDT, has hit an all-time high of $83.2 billion, beating its all-time high established a year ago and offsetting the $18 billion market cap deflation triggered by UST’s fall from grace.

The achievement is especially noteworthy in light of the ongoing 14 month contraction in the stablecoin market, which according to CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report saw a decline in total market capitalization 0f 0.45% to $130 billion as of May 23, to its lowest market cap since September 2021.

Tether’s USDT has recently been growing as it benefits from woes affecting its rivals. Circle’s USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, was hit by the implosion of its banking partner Silicon Valley Bank in March.

On the other hand Binance USD (BUSD), a one-time $20 billion entity, effectively received an expiration date when New York state regulators compelled the issuer, Paxos, to cease minting new tokens in February.

Tether has reported a $1.48 billion net profit in the first quarter of the year, with approximately 85% of its investments being in cash, cash equivalents, and other short-term deposits. The company earns income from its large portfolio of U.S. Treasury bills, gold, and other investments and has recently committed to buying Bitcoin using 15% of its net realized profits.

USDC to Launch Natively on Arbitrum Blockchain

The issuer of the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization USDC, Circle, has revealed it’s set to natively launch the stablecoin on the Arbitrum blockchain, in a move meant to replace the liquidity that had been previously bridged.

Circle outlined the advantages of this new, native iteration of USDC on social media. Among the benefits are the removal of bridge withdrawal lags and the potential for institutional inflows and outflows. The stablecoin is set to officially launch on Arbitrum on June 8.

Meanwhile, the Ethereum-bridged version of USDC appearing on block explorers will undergo a rebranding, adopting the new name "USDC.e," according to Circle.

As for the transition process, Circle noted that the Arbitrum Foundation “will be working with ecosystem apps to provide a smooth transition of liquidity from bridged USDC to native USDC over time.” Circle also has plans to introduce the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to the Layer 2 network.

In a separate blog post, the Arbitrum Foundation noted that the integration  “will enable USDC to move natively to-and-from Ethereum (and other supported chains) in minutes — no more withdrawal delays.”

Nike NFTs to Appear in EA Sports Games

Nike has announced that its non-fungible token (NFT) platform, .Swoosh, is set to be incorporated within EA Sports games in an integration that opens up the possibility for Nike's virtual apparel and footwear to make appearances in game scenarios.

In a statement, Nike noted that its NFTs are set to be featured in EA Sports games within the forthcoming months, but didn’t mention which games titles will be incorporating Nike’s tokens.

EA Sports’ game portfolio includes several high-profile titles like FIFA, which is recognized as the “most popular game” of 2022, the Madden NFL series, and the NBA Live series. These games command a substantial following with loyal user bases.

It is anticipated that Nike NFTs will take the form of customizable wearable accessories, purchasable by players to modify their in-game character avatars.

Nike, it’s worth noting, first introduced its .swoosh NFT platform in November 2022, though it didn't launch an NFT collection until the outset of 2023. Currently, over 97,000 of its sneaker NFTs have been sold to just under 53,000 addresses.

Crypto Market Movers – RNDR, OCEAN, KAVA

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 7-day period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) - Ocean Protocol is a blockchain-based platform that aims to create a decentralized data economy. It provides a secure and transparent way for data providers to share their data with data consumers, while maintaining control over how their data is used and who can access it.

Kava (KAVA) - Kava is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built on the Cosmos blockchain. It is designed to enable users to earn interest on their digital assets and also borrow cryptocurrencies using its stablecoin, USDX. Kava uses the Tendermint consensus algorithm and has a feature called "Hard Protocol" that enables users to borrow and lend cryptocurrencies.

Render token (RNDR) - The Render Network is designed to connect users looking to perform render jobs with people who have idle GPUs to process the renders. Owners would connect their GPUs to the Render Network in order to receive and complete rendering jobs using OctaneRender.

 

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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