Key Takeaways
- Allegations have emerged of a lobbying effort to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried.
- The allegations came just one day before a new interview with Bankman-Fried was released.
- Despite speculation, there is no official sign that the Trump administration is considering a pardon.
Stablecoins are entering what Tether co-founder Reeve Collins calls their “2.0 era,” a new generation of community-driven digital money that he claims will facilitate faster and cheaper transactions.
Talking to CCN on the sidelines of Token2049 in Singapore, Collins said that stablecoins are threatening the very fabric of “incumbent banking systems.”
From Web2 Profits to Web3
After a decade of technological stagnation but growing regulatory acceptance, the Tether co-founder said the stablecoin story has finally changed.
“The technology and what it does haven’t changed at all,” he said. “But what’s changed is finally the narrative.”
Every major financial institution now wants in, he explained, because “they’re not going to get in trouble anymore — that’s what opened the floodgates.”
Through his new venture STBL, Collins wants to update the model for the Web3 era.
“We all know how lucrative stablecoins are for those centralized issuers,” he said. “You give them money, they get all the interest, and you get to use the token.”
STBL splits a traditional stablecoin into three components:
- USST: a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.
- YLD: a yield-bearing token (YLD) that captures interest from the underlying collateral.
- STBL: a governance token (STBL) that lets the community help steer the system.
Unlike USDT or USDC, where the issuer earns the yield on reserves, STBL’s model returns that value to users who provide the collateral.
Collins compared it to social media’s data trade-off:
“You spend all your time on Facebook. You give them all your data. They monetize all that, and you get entertainment. That’s very Web2. We’re now in the Web3 world,” he told CCN.
Adding: “The network, the community, the people who provide the value are the ones that get the value,” he said. “That’s what I call Stablecoin 2.0.”
Collins believes this model will make stablecoins more transparent and equitable, rewarding users instead of corporations.
“We’re making them highly productive versus just sitting in your wallet,” he said.
The Next Evolution of DATs
Collins’ second focus is Reserve One, a billion-dollar Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) designed to provide traditional investors with crypto exposure through public markets.
When asked why now was the right time to launch, Collins replied quickly:
“That’s an easy answer — regulation, Donald Trump,” he said.
“The U.S. stance on crypto is what has opened that possibility,” he said. “Before it was shark-infested waters because the SEC was after you, and now the SEC and the government are supportive of innovation, and it’s an extraordinary thing to see.”
Collins said the rush of DATs, public vehicles offering crypto exposure, has cooled after an initial boom.
“There was this frenzy of DATs, and we were early,” he said. “We announced right before this flood of new DATs came to market, and that window is really closing in the way that they’re coming to market.”
He attributed the slowdown to the complexity and cost of regulation in the U.S.
“Launching and maintaining and running a public company, especially in the U.S., is extremely expensive and difficult,” he said.
“The penalty for the missteps is very high, whereas in the crypto space, it’s easy to spin up a company, so a lot of companies overestimated their ability to do it.”
He described Reserve One as a bridge between traditional markets and the blockchain economy.
“But Reserve One is a very substantial DAT,” Collins said. “We have a world-class management team and a world-class board — extremely seasoned and experienced people leading this company that can navigate the public markets with expertise, not stumble through it.
On that foundation, Collins said the reason he was working on Reserve One was due to his passion for “delivering on the promise of blockchain.”
“The promise of Web3 is built on top of the blockchain, because now that you can plug the whole world into access, you need wallets and tokens,” he said.
Adding: “And if you have wallets and tokens, then companies can be built around them, and you can easily reward individuals for their behavior, even in pennies, because it’s instant and free.”
Beyond “Buy and Hold”
Collins said Reserve One’s strategy differs sharply from that of MicroStrategy, the U.S. software company known for its massive Bitcoin holdings.
“It’s not better or worse, it’s the necessary evolution,” he said.
“MicroStrategy, being first and being of the size that it is, has created a very unique flywheel and a unique position in the market. But that was 1.0, that was the first wave. It’s like, buy Bitcoin, hold.”
He said that approach made sense early on, but lacks flexibility today.
“If you want to buy Bitcoin and hold, and you want to do it through a public vehicle, you can do it through an ETF,” he said.
“But a DAT is better than an ETF, because there’s a lot more flexibility and creativity in how to buy Bitcoin really efficiently and generate more value for your shareholders than just an ETF.”
He argued that the next wave of DATs will need to demonstrate active management and ecosystem value, not passive accumulation.
“The evolution of DATs, though, is you have to really also have an operating business that generates wealth on top of that,” he said.
“You can’t just buy crypto and hold.”
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Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
Insha Zia is the News Editor at CCN. Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, he ensures the CCN newsroom provides value to readers by educating, informing, and engaging them with accurate and timely coverage.
Before joining CCN, Insha was a Senior Journalist at DailyCoin, where his career in crypto journalism took off. At DailyCoin he garnered ample experience by covering some of the biggest news in the crypto industry, especially in the Cardano ecosystem, and maintain solid relations with KOLs in the industry.
Insha has worked as a ghostwriter and a developer for three years. He has co-authored numerous articles in reputable publications, including Hackernoon, Yahoo Finance, and Nasdaq. He also has experience as a Solidity Developer and a Data Analyst.
Insha’s developer and journalist backgrounds go hand in hand when educating readers on technically complex concepts within the crypto space. He values accuracy, transparency, and delivering valuable insights to his readers.
Insha firmly believes education can propel the mass adoption of the crypto space. He is committed to giving CCN readers a greater understanding of the technology using his technical background.
Insha earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, in 2022. His technical foundation includes expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, data analysis, programming languages, and cybersecurity.
His comprehensive skill set enables him to communicate complex concepts to crypto readers with authority and clarity, making his articles both informative and engaging for his audience.
Insha is determined to take CCN to the top of the industry. When he’s not working on his next article or editing, Insha enjoys playing video games, mainly in FPS and MMORPG genres. He also loves playing soccer and has supported Arsenal since he was six.
