Continuation of panic in crypto, Finland and Sweden in NATO and dollar 64

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The crisis in the crypto is developing in an alarming direction. As experts feared, following the collapse of the Terrausd cryptocurrency today, the most popular world stabelcoin Tether, tied to the dollar rate. After the start of the “special operation”, Tether became one of the main ways to protect against fluctuations in the course, bypassing the currency restrictions of the Central Bank and withdrawing money abroad. This afternoon, Tether for the first time in his history lost a binding to the dollar, falling on crypto -rms to a record low course $ 0.94. By the evening, the situation was stabilized, and Tether returned to $ 1 - but the risks of stablcoins remain high, which is unlikely to know most of the new investors.

The panic on the cryptoine began with the collapse of the Terrausd cryptocurrency (Tiker UST), which we wrote in detail in the evening mailing list on Wednesday. Terrausd is a popular stablecoin - cryptocurrency with a rigid binding of the course to traditional assets, usually to the dollar. It works on an algorithmic basis - that is, its binding to the dollar is ensured not by real assets, but by the action of the algorithm . Due to the series of large conclusions to other cryptocurrencies against the background of the Fed , indicating the instability of stablecoins, the Terrausd course collapsed from $ 1 to $ 0.3 in a few days.
On Thursday, May 12, Bitcoin at the peak fell by 10% to the levels of $ 25,500. Although then it recovered to $ 27,500, it is still the lowest level since December 2020 and the deepest weekly fall from the pandemic March 2020.
But the most alarming in what is happening for Russians is that, as analysts feared, on Thursday, panic spread to the most popular Tether stablecoin in the world. Unlike Terrausd, this is a cryptocurrency, the binding of which, as its founders claim, is provided by real assets of $ 83 billion - that is, for the entire amount of the issue. Tether accounts for more than a third of the global stabelcoin market, the capitalization of which is $ 183 billion.
After the ruble collapsed by a third in the early days of the “special operation”, and the Central Bank limited the purchase of cash dollars and the output of the currency abroad, Tether became the main tool that made it possible to circumvent restrictions. Stebblecoins are ideal for this: their main advantage is protection against traditional cryptocurrencies inherent in traditional cryptocurrencies (for example, bitcoin or ether) of sharp leaps in the course. This is a much more understandable tool for beginners. In the first week after February 21, the volume of ruble operations with Tether increased 5-10 times and at the peak reached $ 35 million per day. The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov even demanded from Tether to stop servicing Russians, but the company refused.
At the auction on Thursday, Tether for the first time in his history, for several hours, got rid of the dollar - at European auction, cryptocurrency fell to 95 cents. The fall lasted about an hour and a half, after which the rate returned to $ 1, but the business press stated the frave of the course and reminded that the Fed’s report on the instability of private stabilcoins only strengthened the positions of skeptics, which have long been talking about the risks of this tool.
Tether is owned by IFINEX, also known as the owner of the Bitfinex crypto accounting officer, from which the recently arrested Russian Ilya Lichtenstein stole $ 3.6 billion of customers in 2019. The statements of Tether owners that the entire emission of cryptocurrencies for more than $ 80 billion is provided with real assets is not so easy to check. Tether is a private company that does not publish reports and is not connected by the requirements of the regulators. She publishes only brief reports on her assets, not passing a real independent audit. The reports say that 44% of reserves consist of American government bonds, but the rest of the points are described only in general terms. Tether Technical Director Paolo Ardoino on Thursday in a conversation with FT refused to talk in detail about the company's reserves, saying that “did not want to disclose a secret sauce,” and referring to the non -public counterparties of the company.
In 2019, the New York prosecutor's office convicted Tether owners secretly from investors $ 700 million from Tether's reserves to Bitfinex accounts, which did not have enough money to cover obligations to customers. They had to pay a fine of $ 18.5 million - it was after that Tether began to publish at least non -assigned reporting. And in 2021, the US Commission on Trade Futures fined Tether another $ 41 million for false allegations on the full security of the reserves structure.
Terrausd collapse and Tether’s dumping from the dollar emphasize the fragile nature of private stabelcoins and call more persistent requirements for tightening their regulation, Fitch agency wrote in Friday report.
A good analysis of Tether financial risks in Russian can be found here .

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What else happened in a day

- Applications of the deputy head of the pro -Russian administration of the Kherson region on the readiness of joining Russia seemed to be a Falstart. Already on Thursday night, Kirill Stremuzov, who promised the “transition of the Kherson region to Russian legislation” by the day before the end of the year, said : “The deadlines for the preparation [on adoption in Russia] have not yet been indicated. This is not a question of the next days, but a foreseeable prospect. ”

- The President and Prime Minister of Finland officially stated that the country would apply for joining NATO. The Sweden government plans to make a similar statement. Both countries can submit their applications next week. Dmitry Peskov called the entry of the Scandinavian countries a threat to Russia, and the Foreign Ministry warned that Russia in this case would accept “military-technical measures”-Russia's threats were also literally sounded before the “special operation” in Ukraine. The Zaporost Process of Russia at the UN added that after the emergence of the military NATO, the territories of these countries in Finland and Sweden will become a “possible goal for the Russian Federation”.

- The Institute of International Finance (IIF) markedly reduced one of the most pessimistic assessments of the growth of the world economy. Experts believe that the situation in the European Union corresponds to the forecasts of a real recession in the second half of the year, the situation in China, due to Omcrone, has deteriorated, and the policy of increasing US bets threatens global growth even without a factor in Russia and Ukraine, "whose economy is literally collapsing." The global GDP will grow by 2.2%, but with the adjustment to the effect of the base, growth will be close to zero, writes IIF. Without amendments, the EU will grow by only 1%, the USA - by 2.5%, China - by 3.5%, and the Russian economy will decrease by 15%.

-Ex-Minister of Economic Development, Alexei Ulyukaev, sentenced to eight years in a strict regime in the case of receiving a bribe from Igor Sechin at $ 2 million, left the colony along the parole. Five and a half years have passed since his detention on November 14, 2016. The details of the case of Ulyukaev can be remembered here . The main evidence was the notes of hidden observation and wiretaps, which, after the detention of Ulyukaev in 2017, was the first to find and published The Bell.

- The dollar on the Mosbirge sank below 64 rubles, the euro - below 68 rubles. Bloomberg on the eve called the ruble the best currency in 2022 to strengthen the dollar (11% since the beginning of the year). At the same time, the agency notes that the strengthening is due to strict currency control by the Russian authorities, so many experts doubt the reliability of the exchange rate of the ruble and that it reflects the real situation in the Russian economy.

- “Lukoil” buys Russian assets of Shell, including 411 gas stations, as well as a plant for the production of lubricants in the Tver region. More than 350 employees of gas stations and the plant will maintain labor relations with the new owner. Forbes previously reported that this was a prerequisite for Shell when selling assets. The lubricants factory was sold in the load for refueling, it has loans for 9 billion rubles, the publication noted.