Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) surged $1,000 in five minutes before the Nov. 10 Wall Street open as United States inflation and jobs data boosted risk assets.

CPI comes in lowest since the start of 2022

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing to daily highs of $17,782 on Bitstamp.

The pair was just hours from a more-than-two-year low below $15,700 at the time, taking its 24-hour low-to-high to 12.8%.

At the time of writing, BTC/USD circled $17,400 with volatility still rampant as U.S. markets opened to digest economic data.

This had come in the form of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for October, along with jobless claims.

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets saw fresh volatility on Nov. 10 after stablecoin Tether (USDT) unpegged from the U.S. dollar.

Tether exec: "No issues" with USDT

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed USDT hitting lows of $0.971 on Bitstamp on the day amid fears that the largest stablecoin by market cap may fall further.

Those fears were stoked by evidence of embattled exchange FTX and sister company Alameda Research attempting to short USDT.

Currently in the throws of a crisis reminiscent of the Terra LUNA debacle, both firms have fallen foul of the cryptocurrency community and beyond as regulators step up scrutiny of the industry.

The impact has been felt across crypto prices, with BTC/USD reaching more than two-year lows of $15,638 on Bitstamp.

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets saw fresh volatility on Nov. 10 after stablecoin Tether (USDT) unpegged from the United States dollar.

Tether executive: “No issues” with USDT

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed USDT hitting lows of $0.971 on Bitstamp on the day amid fears that the largest stablecoin by market capitalization may fall further.

Those fears were stoked by evidence of embattled exchange FTX and sister company Alameda Research attempting to short USDT.

Currently in the throws of a crisis reminiscent of the Terra debacle, both firms have fallen foul of the cryptocurrency community and beyond as regulators step up scrutiny of the industry.

The impact has been felt across crypto prices, with BTC/USD reaching more than two-year lows of $15,638 on Bitstamp.

In April 2022, the Tron network launched USDD, a token pegged to the U.S. dollar, as an "over-collateralized stablecoin," meaning its likelihood of slipping below $1 should be lower due to excessive reserves backing its valuation.

USDD stablecoin slips below $1 peg

But it was not enough to keep USDD's price anchored to $1 on Nov. 8 when some whales dumped over 11 million USDD tokens to seek exposure in rival stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). A day later, USDD's price fell to as low as $0.96, followed by a modest recovery to $0.98 on Nov. 10. 

The selling pressure was visible more broadly in the USDD liquidity pool on Curve's decentralized finance protocol. As of Nov. 10, the pool was heavily imbalanced, holding nearly 82.50% in USDD and the rest in USDT, USDC, and DAI stablecoins. 

Tron founder Justin Sun speculates that Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund headed by FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, could be the whale dumping its USDD holdings to avoid insolvency. Alameda's balance sheet reportedly was 50% FTT (FTT), FTX's native token that has recently fallen more than 90%.

Miscalculated collateral reserves

USDD is issued by Tron DAO Reserve (TDR), which also serves as the custodian of its collateral. TDR is primarily responsible for selling the collateral to maintain USDD's peg in the event of a sell-side shock.

In April 2022, the Tron network launched USDD, a token pegged to the United States dollar as an “over-collateralized stablecoin,” meaning its likelihood of slipping below $1 should be lower due to excessive reserves backing its valuation.

USDD stablecoin slips below $1 peg

But it was not enough to keep USDD’s price anchored to $1 on Nov. 8 when some whales dumped over 11 million USDD tokens to seek exposure in rival stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). A day later, USDD’s price fell to as low as $0.96, followed by a modest recovery to $0.98 on Nov. 10. 

The selling pressure was visible more broadly in the USDD liquidity pool on Curve’s decentralized finance protocol. As of Nov. 10, the pool was heavily imbalanced, holding nearly 82.50% in USDD and the rest in USDT, USDC and Dai (DAI) stablecoins. 

Tron founder Justin Sun speculates that Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund headed by FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, could be the whale dumping its USDD holdings to avoid insolvency. Alameda’s balance sheet reportedly was 50% FTX Token (FTT), FTX’s native token that has recently fallen more than 90%.

Miscalculated collateral reserves

USDD is issued by Tron DAO Reserve (TDR), which also serves as the custodian of its collateral. TDR is primarily responsible for selling the collateral to maintain USDD’s peg in the event of a sell-side shock.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners could form the next BTC price “trigger,” research warns as withdrawals intensify.

In a Quicktake post for on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant on Nov. 10, contributor MAC.D suggested that miners could soon face “bankruptcy.”

Research: Network conditions “will strangle” miners

After BTC/USD fell 20% in a matter of days, miners began operating at a higher cost than the block subsidy and transaction fees they earned.

The result is mining rigs being idled and miners selling BTC to cover expenses.

“BTC security is at an all-time high, but its mining volume is gradually decreasing. This will strangle the miners,” MAC.D explained.