Stablecoin adoption in Latin America is increasing as more users turn to Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT for financial stability, according to a new report from cryptocurrency exchange Bitso.

The USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) stablecoins have become a “store of value” in Latin America, accounting for 39% of total purchases on Bitso in 2024, the firm said in its third edition of the Latin America Crypto Landscape report issued on March 12.

The report highlighted a significant increase in stablecoin adoption on the platform, with total stablecoin purchases surging 9% from 2023.

“In Latin America, challenging macroeconomic conditions, characterized by high inflation and currency devaluations, drove increased cryptocurrency adoption — particularly stablecoins — as a reliable store of value,” Bitso stated in the report.

USDC leads the race, Bitcoin follows

While stablecoin purchases surged, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a notable decline in trading volume on Bitso in 2024, with its share dropping to 22% from 38% in the second half of 2023.

According to Bitso, the decline in BTC purchases in Latin America indicates the growing trend of the hodl strategy, which implies buying and holding the cryptocurrency to profit from its long-term value appreciation.

The drop in BTC purchases aligned with the bull market of 2024, with Bitcoin rallying past $100,000 for the first time in history in December.

As Bitso users held off on Bitcoin purchases in 2024, buying activity switched to stablecoins like USDC and USDT, with the former leading the race at 24%.

Related: Brazil fintech unicorn Meliuz adopts Bitcoin treasury strategy

USDT purchases accounted for 15% of total cryptocurrencies acquired on Bitso in 2024.

Argentina is the top USDt market with a 50% share

A more detailed analysis of geographical preferences among Latin American countries showed a massive trend for USDT use in Argentina, which is known for its high stablecoin adoption due to inflation rates surpassing 100%.

According to the report, Bitso users in Argentina mostly favored purchases of USDT and USDC in 2024, accounting for 50% and 22% of all crypto purchases in the country, respectively.

On the other hand, the share of Bitcoin purchases in Argentina accounted for just 8% of crypto purchases last year on Bitso, the lowest share among other analyzed countries.

Brazilian and Mexican Bitso users still continued to favor Bitcoin as the most purchased crypto asset last year, with the BTC buying percentages accounting for 22% and 25%, respectively.

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Ripple has achieved a significant regulatory milestone by securing a license from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), making it the first blockchain payment provider to receive such approval. The announcement on March 13 follows an initial in-principle clearance, paving the way for the company to expand its services in the region. Reece Merrick, Ripple’s Managing […]

The post Ripple’s becomes first blockchain to acquire Dubai regulatory approval for cross-border payment appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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Despite the weakened sentiment, Bitcoin’s MVRV ratio hints at a potential recovery after significant investor position reductions. …

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Despite Bitcoin’s market correction, the asset remains strong while many altcoins have sunk back to bear market depths.  …

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Bitcoin must close the week above $89,000 to signal an end to the short-term downtrend, says a crypto analyst.

“The only way for Bitcoin to confirm that the bottom is actually in would be to close a weekly back above $89K,” crypto analyst Matthew Hyland said in a video posted to X on March 13.

Without $89,000 close, Bitcoin may head toward $69,000

Bitcoin (BTC) last traded at $89,000 on March 7, a level Hyland considers crucial since it was the support area where Bitcoin ultimately ended up “breaking down below.” After falling below $89,000, it dropped to $78,523 on March 11 before stabilizing in the low $80,000s.

With Bitcoin currently trading at $83,406, a move above $89,000 would liquidate approximately $1.60 billion in short positions, as per CoinGlass data.

If Bitcoin fails to close above it, Hyland warned the asset’s price could drop to between $74,000 to $69,000, a level Bitcoin hasn’t seen since November.

“It probably is likely at this point that going into the coming weeks or the coming months, Bitcoin will likely test this lower range at some point of support,” he said.

“If we do get a weekly close above this area, I think the low is in for Bitcoin, and we are not going down to this area,” he said. Hyland said that it typically leads to further upside when Bitcoin breaks above a resistance level.

Bitcoin demand in the US has declined

However, demand for Bitcoin in the US has been declining recently due to macroeconomic factors.

Bitcoin’s demand fell by 103,000 BTC last week compared to the previous week, “marking its fastest pace of contraction since July 2024,” according to CryptoQuant. 

Related: Bitcoin high-entry buyers are driving sell pressure, price may ‘floor’ at $70K

CryptoQuant said the recent decline in Bitcoin’s demand in the US was due to uncertainty around US inflation rates and US President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs on Feb. 1. 

On March 7, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reiterated that he was in no hurry to adjust interest rates.

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Learn MoreBitcoin must secure weekly close above $89K to confirm bottom has passed

Hardware wallet provider Trezor has patched up a security flaw in two of its latest models after competitor firm Ledger’s open-source research arm discovered a vulnerability in their microcontrollers. 

Ledger Donjon acknowledged Trezor has made several security advancements of late but found cryptographic operations could still be performed on the microcontroller of Trezor’s Safe 3 and 5 models, which could make them “vulnerable to more advanced attacks.”

Fortunately, Trezor has since addressed the vulnerabilities found, Ledger’s chief technology officer Charles Guillemet said in a March 12 X post.

“We believe that making the ecosystem more secure helps everyone, and is critical as we push towards broader adoption of crypto and digital assets,” Guillemet added.

Trezor had already implemented “Secure Elements” — chips designed to protect the user’s PIN code and cryptographic secrets — as some of Trezor’s devices could be tampered with by modifying the software running on it, potentially allowing threat actors to steal user funds.

The Secure Elements feature “effectively thwarts any inexpensive hardware attack, in particular voltage glitching,” Ledger said in a March 12 post.

“[This] gives users confidence that their funds are safe even if their device gets misplaced or stolen.”

However, Ledger found another potential attack vector stemmed from the microcontroller, the other main part of Trezor’s two-chip design for its Safe 3 and 5 models.

Trezor implemented a firmware integrity check to detect modified software, but Ledger was able to demonstrate that an attacker could still bypass this security check.

This issue has since been resolved by Trezor — though neither Ledger nor Trezor have explained how. Cointelegraph reached out to Trezor but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Trezor confirmed on X that user funds remain safe and that no action is required.

Related: ‘Dark Skippy’ method can steal Bitcoin hardware wallet keys

However, when asked whether Trezor was able to patch this issue via firmware, the hardware wallet provider responded: “Unfortunately not.”

“In cybersecurity, the golden rule is simple: nothing is fully unbreakable. That’s why we have already implemented a multi-layer defense against supply chain attacks and always advise our users to purchase from official sources.”

Ledger isn’t immune to security vulnerabilities either.

In December 2023, a hacker committed a security breach into Ledger’s connector library and stole $484,000 worth of crypto assets.

Another threat actor who breached Ledger’s systems published the mailing addresses of around 270,000 Ledger customers in June 2020.

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Learn MoreHardware wallet Ledger helps competitor Trezor resolve security vulnerability

Bitcoin ETFs experienced net withdrawals on most trading days this month. March opened with continuous outflows, extending a downturn that began in late February. Between March 3 and March 7, every single day saw net outflows — roughly $74 million on March 3, $143 million on March 4, $38 million on March 5, $134 million […]

The post Turbulent times for Bitcoin as ETF outflows continue in March appeared first on CryptoSlate.

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A crypto trader fell victim to a sandwich attack while making a $220,764 stablecoin transfer on March 12 — losing almost 98% of its value to a Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot.

$220,764 worth of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin was swapped to $5,271 of Tether (USDT) in eight seconds as the MEV bot successfully front-ran the transaction, banking over $215,500.

Data from Ethereum block explorer shows the MEV attack occurred on decentralized exchange Uniswap v3’s USDC-USDT liquidity pool, where $19.8 million worth of value is locked.

The MEV bot front-ran the transaction by swapping all the USDC liquidity out of the Uniswap v3 USDC-USDT pool and then put it back in after the transaction was executed, according to founder of The DeFi Report Michael Nadeau.

The attacker tipped Ethereum block builder “bob-the-builder.eth” $200,000 from the $220,764 swap and profited $8,000 themselves, Nadeau said.

DeFi researcher “DeFiac” speculates the same trader using different wallets has fallen victim to a total of six sandwich attacks, citing “internal tools.” They pointed out that all funds traveled from borrowing and lending protocol Aave before being deposited on Uniswap.

Two of the wallets fell victim to an MEV bot sandwich attack on March 12 at around 9:00 am UTC. Ethereum wallet addresses “0xDDe…42a6D” and “0x999…1D215” were sandwich attacked for $138,838 and $128,003 in transactions that occurred three to four minutes earlier.

Both transactors made the same swap in the Uniswap v3 liquidity pool as the trader who made the $220,762 transfer. 

Others speculate the trades could be attempts at money laundering.

“If you have NK illicit funds you could construct a very mev-able tx, then privately send it to a mev bot and have them arb it in a bundle,” said founder of crypto data dashboard DefiLlama, 0xngmi.

“That way you wash all the money with close to 0 losses.”

Related: THORChain at crossroads: Decentralization clashes with illicit activity

While initially criticizing Uniswap, Nadeau later acknowledged that the transactions didn’t come from Uniswap’s front end, which has MEV protection and default slippage settings.

Nadeau backtracked on those criticisms after Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams and others clarified the protections Uniswap has in place to fight against sandwich attacks.

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