Sonic Labs Ganti Stablecoin dari Dollar ke Dirham UAE
Sonic Labs Ditches Dollar-Pegged Algorithmic Stablecoin for UAE Dirham Version https://cryptonews.com/news/sonic-labs-ditches-dollar-pegged-algorithmic-stablecoin-for-uae-dirham-version/

Sonic Labs Ditches Dollar-Pegged Algorithmic Stablecoin for UAE Dirham Version

Sonic Labs has scrapped its initial plans to launch a US dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin, pivoting instead to develop a version tied to the United Arab Emirates dirham. Just a week after co-founder Andre Cronje revealed that the firm was building a USD-based algorithmic stablecoin offering an annual percentage rate of up to 23%, the company made an abrupt U-turn.

"We will no longer be releasing a USD-based algorithmic stablecoin," Cronje said in a March 28 post on X. "Completely unrelated, we will be releasing a mathematically bound numerical Dirham, which is settled and denominated in USD, which is definitely not a USD-based algorithmic stablecoin."

The sudden change in direction comes amid growing regulatory attention on stablecoins and follows the UAE's own announcement that it will roll out a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital dirham, by late 2025. UAE Central Bank Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama has said that the digital version of the dirham will be blockchain-based, aiming to bolster financial stability and combat illicit finance.

The digital dirham will be accepted across all payment systems alongside its physical form, according to a report by Khaleej Times. Sonic's decision to abandon its original plan may have also been influenced by broader concerns over algorithmic stablecoins, which have faced intense scrutiny since the infamous collapse of the Terra ecosystem in 2022.

Terra's algorithmic stablecoin, UST, which offered yields above 20% on the Anchor Protocol, lost its peg and plummeted to $0.30. Its sister token, LUNA, saw a dramatic fall from over $120 to under $1, wiping out $40 billion in value in just days. Cronje himself has publicly shared his hesitations about re-entering the algorithmic stablecoin space, citing past trauma from prior market crashes.