What is a stable coin? What is it used for? How are stable coins created and are they really a good idea?
Well, stick around till the end, in this article, we’ll answer these questions and more.
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Overview:
Most cryptocurrencies were meant to serve as a medium of exchange and not just a store of value.
The problem is that due to their relatively small market cap, even popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin tend to experience wide fluctuations in price.
Usually, the smaller a market cap an asset has, the more volatile its price will be. Imagine throwing a rock into a small pond.
Now take the same rock and throw it into the ocean. Clearly, the rock will have much more of an effect on the pond than on the ocean. In the same manner, the cryptocurrency market cap is a small pond for now and is more affected by everyday buy and sell orders than, say, for example, the US dollar.
This creates a major issue since you can’t enjoy the benefits of cryptocurrencies, which include the decentralization of money and a free for all payment system without the value volatility that accompanies it.
Imagine how hard it is to use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for day-to-day transactions and trading purposes when one day it’s worth X and the next day it’s worth half that.
Just think what it feels like to be the guy who bought two pizzas for 100 bitcoins eight years ago. That’s exactly where stable coins come in. Simply put, stable coins are an attempt to create a cryptocurrency that isn’t volatile.
FIAT Currency :
A stable coin value is pegged to a real-world currency, also known as a Fiat currency.
For all those who don’t know about Fiat currency. A fiat currency is a national currency that is not pegged to the price of a commodity such as gold or silver.
The value of fiat money is largely based on the public’s faith in the currency’s issuer, which is normally that country’s government or central bank
For example, the stable coin, known as Tether or USDT, is worth $1 and is expected to maintain this peg no matter what.
Stable coins allow for the convenience of cryptocurrency, which means a fast settlement and fewer regulatory hurdles, along with the stability of Fiat currencies.
Like most coins, the most obvious use case would be to use them as a medium of exchange for day-to-day purchases. But since these coins aren’t very popular at the moment, no one really accepts them as a payment method.
Usage of Stable Coin :
So the main usage of stable coins today is actually on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Using stable coins, traders can trade volatile cryptocurrencies for stable cryptocurrencies when they want to lower their risk.
For example, if I’m invested in Bitcoin and I don’t want to risk the price of Bitcoin falling against the US dollar, I can just exchange my Bitcoins for USDT and retain my dollar value.
Once I want to get back into the game and hold Bitcoins, I can just exchange my USDT back to BTC.
This method is extremely popular with crypto-only exchanges that don’t supply their users with the option to exchange Bitcoin for Fiat currencies due to regulation.
Another great advantage of Stable coins is that you can move funds between exchanges relatively quickly. Since crypto transactions are faster and cheaper than Fiat transactions, the option for such a fast settlement between exchanges makes arbitraging more convenient and closes the price gaps that you usually see between Bitcoin exchanges.
So for now, Stable coins are more of a utility coin for traders than an actual medium of exchange. But how are they made possible?
What keeps their price from the volatility that other cryptocurrencies experience? Well, there are several ways a company can try and maintain its stablecoins Peg to a Fiat currency.
The first way to maintain a Peg is by creating a trust that the coin is actually worth what it is pegged to.
For example, if the market doesn’t believe that one USDT is really worth $1, people will immediately dump all of their USDT and the price will crash. In order to maintain this trust, the company backs its coins with some sort of asset.
Collateral Use Cases :
This collateral is basically proof that the company is good for its word and that its coins should actually be worth the Pegged amount. For example, in Tether’s case, each USDT is said to be backed by an actual US dollar that Tether holds as collateral.
A different example for collateral is the DGX token that is said to be backed by gold. Another version of a collateralized, stablecoin is one that is backed by one or more cryptocurrencies. This form of collateral is much easier to audit since a company’s balance can be viewed on the blockchain.
The second way to maintain a Peg is by manipulating the coin supply on the market, also known as an algorithmic Peg. An algorithmic Peg means the company writes a set of rules, also known as a smart contract, that increases or decreases the amount of a stable coin in circulation, depending on the coin’s price.
Let me explain this with an example, Imagine we have a stable coin that is pegged to the US dollar through an algorithmic Peg. Assuming a lot of people were to start buying the coin, its price would rise and the Peg will be broken.
To prevent this from happening, new coins are issued. This increase in supply alleviates the price pressure created by the demand and maintains the coin’s value.
On the other hand, many people start selling the coin, coins are removed from the overall supply in order to hold the price Peg to $1. To be clear, algorithmically Pegged stablecoins don’t hold any assets as collateral. The smart contract that manages the coin acts as a central bank.
It tries to manipulate the price back to Peg by changing the money supply. There are pros and cons for each Pegging method.
Fiat collateralized Pegs transmit the highest degree of certainty to stable coin holders that the coin is indeed worth the asset it is backed by.
FIAT Collateralized Pegs Cons:
However, Fiat collateralized Pegs have some major cons.
From the company’s standpoint, the asset is frozen and can’t be used for anything else. Also, there’s always the risk of investment or the closing of the company’s bank account, which can ruin the trust in the stable coin.
Another issue with Fiat collateralized stable coins is that it’s hard to actually prove the company owns enough of the asset to really back the number of coins in circulation.
Tether, for example, has suffered severe criticism and audit requests from skeptics claiming the company doesn’t have enough collateral to back the USDT in circulation.
Crypto-lateralized coins, on the other hand, may have the benefit of viewing the collateral on the blockchain, but the collateral itself is extremely volatile.
That’s why a premium is needed. In many cases, that company will hold 150% or even more of the collateral needed to make up for possible drops in the cryptocurrency prices.
Algorithmic Pegging benefits from the fact that the company doesn’t need to hold any asset on hand.
However, many will argue that algorithmic Pegging theory doesn’t really work in real life since manipulating the money supply isn’t a guarantee the Peg will hold.
With all of the complexities in maintaining a stable coins Peg, you might be wondering what’s the incentive to create a stable coin in the first place?
Business Model :
What’s the business model? Well, for each company there’s a different incentive. Some companies can charge a fee for trading their coin.
Other companies use their stable coin as a marketing channel to raise awareness of the company and other services it offers.
Gemini, Coinbase, and Circle are exchanges that have created their own stable coins in order to attract more users to their trading platforms and allow easier transition of funds within and between exchanges.
Let’s take a moment to go over some examples of the more popular stable coins in use today. USDT or USD tether, which I’ve already mentioned, is a Fiat collateralized stable coin that is pegged to the US dollar.
The coin was created by the company Tether and has remained relatively stable since its introduction in 2015.
TUSD, not to be confused with USDT, stands for True USD and is a relatively new Fiat collateralized stable coin that attempts to address the criticism directed at Tether.
Collateral US dollars are held in the bank accounts of multiple trust companies.
These bank accounts are published every day and are subject to monthly audits. Guest Also known as Gemini, USD is a Fiat collateralized stable coin issued by the popular crypto exchange Gemini, which was established by the Winklevoss brothers.
According to Gemini, (GUSD) is the first regulated stable coin in the world which stands for the Gemini US Dollar Coin, is a Fiat collateralized stable coin issued by Circle and Coinbase.
Finally, Dai is a stable coin created by Makers (MKR) Dai Stable coin System that is crypto collateralized.
Criticism:
There’s a lot of criticism going on about the creation of stable coins. The most common one is related to the inability to actually maintain the peg in the long run.
This could be due to any one of the reasons I’ve mentioned before. On top of that, a quick look at history tells us that all pegged currencies are doomed to fail due to the cost of maintaining them. Especially when that peg comes under attack.
Some well-known examples where pegs were broken are the Swiss Franc peg to the Euro in 2015, the Chinese yuan to the US dollar in 2005, the Thai bot peg to the US dollar in 1997, and the most famous of them all, the gold standard pegging the US dollar to gold in 1971.
The bigger question here is the issue of governance. Stable coins are considered by many to be centralized due to the fact that there is a company behind them that maintains the peg, whether it be algorithmic or collateralized.
Conclusion:
Stable coins aren’t really cryptocurrencies in the sense that they aren’t decentralized.
Stable coins seem to be providing a solution to something that is just a growing pain and not a constant problem.
Once cryptocurrencies achieve a higher market cap, their volatility will reduce dramatically and there will be no real use for stablecoins. Stablecoins are trying to get the best of both worlds.
The stability of an established currency with a large market and the flexibility of a decentralized free for all cryptocurrency. The problem is that they also get the worst of both worlds.
A centralized coin with a sort of central bank controlling it and a questionable ability to maintain the public’s trust in it.
Hope you liked our article on “What is Stable Coin”, Please read our other article on “What is DeFi in Crypto World“
Equity Gyan 