Former Tether Exec To Launch Stablecoin Clearinghouse
Phil Potter was a former executive at both Bitfinex and Tether. Interestingly, he and cryptocurrency finance company XBTO are expected to launch what they call as a clearinghouse specifically built for stablecoins. Here is everything about it in a nutshell.
Development is On-going
The platform, which is still in progress, will be called Stablehouse.io. It is basically aimed to address patchy liquidity, stability, and accessibility – all of which are responsible for the prevention of the stablecoin market from reaching greater heights (i.e. critical mass).
Stablehouse, by essence, will act as a platform that shares some similarities with a traditional central clearing firm or CCP. As such, this will help in making the exchange of stablecoins reach a desirable liquid market price and, more importantly, acquire a more fixed minimal fee.
It will reportedly launch together with support for transactions involving GUSD, DAI, PAX, USDC, and USDT. However, the company clarified that more options will be made available in the near future.
The venture is being spearheaded by Philippe Bekhazi, the founder of XBTO. He will basically act as interim CEO, though it is only for the time being. As for its advisory board, this will include Potter and David Namdar, the latter being Galaxy Digital and SolidX Partners’ founding partner. The other name revealed on the announcement is Samson Mow, who is Blockstream’s very own chief strategy officer.
Improving the Stablecoin Market
Ultimately, the partners believe that they could somehow provide some of the infrastructure needed to achieve “mass adoption” of digital currencies and stablecoins. Bekhazi said that market, in particular, is inefficient and even has a number of disparate stablecoins. According to him, users have to transact a couple of times with various parties just to exchange a single stablecoin for another.
Through Stablehouse, these issues will be addressed, as Bekhazi promised. This will be done by simply serving as a centralized unit that will give users, exchanges, and holders certainty when it comes to access and liquidity. As a result, this should nurture confidence for developers, investors, and merchants.
Stablehouse, for the time being, will be headquartered in Bermuda. From there, it is expected to look for a digital asset business license, which will be obtained from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
It cannot be denied that the stablecoin use case is rapidly growing. However, both Bitfinex and Tether have suffered significantly from what is believed to be an image issue for the popularly-used USDT stablecoin. Lastly, the two companies are said to have overlapping management and owners.