Month in Review — January 2022

The first month of crypto winter is over

Welcome to Month in Review, where the team behind STASIS and EURS shares our updates from the past month and some thoughts on key events and issues in the cryptocurrency and stablecoin space.

The Month in Review is distributed each month initially as a newsletter. You can sign up to receive it here.

Failed Expectations and the Great DeFi Downfall

As the world transcended into 2022, everyone was expecting another X-mas miracle

to happen and uplift their profits in crypto to unprecedented heights. Once again. However, miracles are quite rare these days.

The digital asset field is a chaotic realm, and understanding the powerplay under the lines takes a lot of time and effort while being rarely rewarding. The reality check during the winter months helped many traders to get back to Earth. Like a few years ago, the sentiment moved down in a matter of days.

Despite the firm winter’s severe volatility, the latest Visa survey indicated that 25% of small businesses are ready to start accepting crypto in 2022. Global credit giant states that nearly a quarter of small and micro enterprises plan to begin accepting crypto assets as payments right this year!

Meanwhile, Sotheby’s took a leap forward into digital and is set to accept cryptocurrency for a rare black diamond. A well-known house has announced an auction of a rare black diamond called “the enigma,” and buyers can bid on it using Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USDC. It feels like global cryptonization is on the way.

In the meantime, Bank of America crypto strategists say stablecoin adoption and CBDC is ‘inevitable’. It appears that the United States will finally be moving forward to create its own central bank digital currency in the form of CBDC. Crypto strategists Andrew Moss and Alkesh Shah wrote in a Monday note that CBDCs “are an inevitable evolution of today’s electronic currencies,” according to a Bloomberg report.

Up or down, Bitcoin’s most hardcore fans, MicroStrategy, will continue investing in BTC no matter what. Although the value of this blue-chip has fallen significantly in recent months, the company intends to continue investing in the digital asset, despite a recommendation by the U.S. securities agency to amend the company’s disclosure in future filings.

Decentralized Finance took a serious hit alongside the crypto market as one of the worst and most unexpected scandals in DeFi took place in January when one of the revelations was too shocking to be true. Wonderland CFO Michael Patryn, treasury manager for decentralized finance protocol Wonderland, turned out to be a former convict who co-founded the defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX, another big-time crypto hustle crime story. The perspectives of the investor-praised platform became blurry after that.

The DeFi sector has literally taken off to space the past year — crypto staking rates are often high and can exceed 20%. Against the backdrop of near-zero Fed rates, this is more than attractive for an average Joe.

Hacks and exploits are inevitable followers of any emerging ecosystem. Since the beginning of the year, two major hacks have already taken place — the Qubit DeFi ($80 million) and Wormhole ($320 million) platforms.

Traditional finance regulators can easily use this to win their case against innovative industry direction. Despite all damage done to the industry’s reputation up to date, DeFi is here to stay, but events like this will undoubtedly impact the perception of transparency in the space.

STASIS’ team track record and unrivaled transparency in stablecoin build-up are the very winning cards that helped us to succeed in the volatile market battleground. We are here to ensure that your on/off-ramp and journey in crypto won’t be impaired by volatility or questionable shady experience!

Project News

Despite the usually slow January, we’ve had quite a productive month. The STASIS team worked as business as usual to ensure smooth operation amidst the introduction of new services.

• STASIS Opens Corporate Onboarding

We are pleased to release a completely redesigned Clients Area and introduce onboarding for corporate clients! The STASIS team is opening this new door to the digital asset field and inviting all the market makers, institutions, family offices, as well as all the corporate treasury managers to proceed with onboarding and try our service. Check more details below.

• STASIS Introduces EURS purchase commissions

The current volume of sell/purchases through our service has become so evidently high that we proudly assume that EURS awareness and popularity on the digital asset market has reached a very substantial level. In 2021, EURS reserves stand at more than 100 million. With this in mind, we decided to introduce purchase commissions to ensure that institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure is equally accessible to everyone, being confident that the community will understand us and pay this small but vital price. Check the full story here.

• STASIS x Wirex

Over volatility? Wirex is introducing the largest euro-backed stablecoin in the world, EURS! Buy & exchange EURS in-app at unbeatable OTC rates or seamlessly spend it at 54 million retailers with your Wirex card. Learn more about the Stasis community and STASIS.

• EURS Emissions exceeded 100 million

The year starts with great news for STASIS. We are pleased to announce that EURS has officially overcome another milestone and is on the way to 200 million in reserves now! The importance of the euro-backed stablecoin is confirmed once again as we continue in a world grasped by uncertainty.

• STASIS Announces Algorand Mobile Wallet Support

We continue to further develop STASIS Wallet by introducing additional functionality. This major release adds Algorand blockchain support. Check the details here.

Worth Reading

• “Year-in-Review 2021”

2021 is over and new horizons are looming ahead…We are pleased to inform you about our achievements over the past year in our comprehensive annual digest! Likes and reactions are appreciated.

• STASIS DeFi Guide

We wanted to give our users an idea of how easy it is to exchange any token for EURS. In this step-by-step guide, we will educate you on how to interact and swap to euro-backed stablecoin using the most popular DeFi platforms!

Next Steps

We are pleased to meet you in 2022! Thanks for reading this letter and staying with us!

We started this year with hard work and dedication since quality is one of our defining features. Our work has proven to be vital for the community so there was no second guess — we remained in operational mode despite the holiday season.

Subscribe to Monthly Stablecoin Digest to stay updated on what’s coming in the crypto world, and read our “Month in Review” to read the 4-week summary of our achievements!

Moreover, make sure you subscribe to our socials on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to stay tuned to what we’re up to!

Thanks for reading the STASIS Blog! Want to learn more about what we do? Check out our website, or download the STASIS Wallet.