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Well, this is exciting! Welcome to the very first edition of the Coinsider Radar, the newsletter for crypto whales, meme coin warriors, and everyone in between.

Here’s how this works: We’re here so you don’t have to forage Twitter for reliable crypto news and original insight. You can expect the Radar to hit your inbox with coverage and analysis of the top trends and stories in crypto every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. We can’t wait to build this world with you…and it all starts now.

Today: Binance plays Monopoly, there’s a new kid in crypto-lending town, and Saylor (allegedly) skips tax season. Let’s jump right in.

– Angelina & Vincent, your Coinsider Radar writers

Stablecoins at War

Famous battles throughout history: the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of the Bastards, and perhaps the fight ahead as stablecoins duke it out for market share.

Earlier this week, Binance announced plans to delist a slew of stablecoins—USD Coin (USDC), Pax Dollar (USDP), and TrueUSD (TUSD)—from its platform to "enhance liquidity and capital efficiency for users."

How that’s happening:

1. On Wednesday, Binance stopped supporting USDC as leverage collateral in its futures markets.

2. On Monday, the exchange’s payments service, Binance Pay, will stop supporting the stablecoins.

3. Margin traders are being encouraged to remove USDC from their accounts before September 23.

4. At the end of the month, Binance will convert these stablecoin balances to its own stablecoin, BUSD, on a one-to-one basis. USDC-backed loans and DeFi staking will be closed.

Why that’s happening: Critics on crypto twitter suggested that Binance is trying to create a stablecoin monopoly.

The delisting has raised questions about Binance’s strategy—namely, whether it’s potentially anti-competitive. FWIW, antitrust laws aren’t widely applied to the crypto world, and seeing as USDC is still available on many other exchanges, Binance’s move doesn’t completely undermine its utility. However, Binance-native BUSD (which is the third-largest stablecoin by market capitalization) will now benefit from Binance's trading volumes—the highest among all exchanges—instead of USDC.

What the competition is saying: Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of USDC issuer Circle, tweeted that the delisting would be a boon for USDC, suggesting that the move cuts out steps for people with USDC who want to trade on Binance. Meanwhile, Circle has been telling news orgs that the move raises “market conduct questions.”

Timing is everything: Binance just hired Henrique Meirelles, the former central bank president and economy minister of Brazil, to its advisory board. As a monetary policy expert, Meirelles could help advise Binance on how to manage BUSD and other stablecoins as the US dollar rapidly appreciates.

Crypto Lender: Bring in the Banks

What might it take to lure big banks into crypto-backed financing after a string of messy bankruptcies?

Serial crypto-preneur Max Keidun thinks he knows the trick: banning unsecured lending and rehypothecation. That’s part of the premise of his new crypto lending marketplace, Debifi, which will do its best to avoid the mistakes of Celsius and Voyager Digital when it launches next year, CoinDesk reports.

Debifi has its work cut out for it: The goal is to entice risk-averse institutions like banks to offer crypto-backed fiat loans on the platform. Keidun said some banks have expressed interest but refused to name names.

How it works: Instead of custodying bitcoin collateral, Debifi runs on multisignature escrow that Keidun already uses at Lend, the peer-to-peer lending marketplace he created. When bitcoin is used as collateral for a fiat loan on Lend, it gets locked into a multisig account that requires three keys (a borrower, lender, and Lend) to open. Debifi's platform requires four keys for added security.

Taking a step back: Working with banks would lower the cost of crypto-backed loans because traditional banks have access to cheaper capital, said Adam Back, CEO of Debifi partner Blockstream. But it's unclear whether banks have the risk appetite to extend crypto-backed credit.

Has Saylor’s Ship Sailed?

There’s only one thing tech billionaire Michael Saylor is better at making than bucketloads of money: big headlines.

Just a few weeks after stepping down as CEO of MicroStrategy, Twitter’s favorite bitcoin maximalist is being accused of tax fraud. Last Wednesday, D.C.’s attorney general announced on Twitter that Saylor and MicroStrategy are being sued for conspiring in the evasion of $25 million in taxes.

What this means for crypto: Concerns that MicroStrategy (the largest corporate bitcoin hodler) might liquidate some of its crypto to cover the bill—and subsequently exert downward pressure on BTC’s price—appear unsubstantiated.

Those fears assume Saylor would rather dump his firm’s bitcoin than liquidate his yachts or mansions, which seems unlikely considering Saylor’s fiery commitment to bitcoin.

In other news:

• The Merge is officially underway: Ethereum’s Bellatrix upgrade triggered the beginning of the historical transition to PoS.

• UK rock band Muse topped the charts with its first-ever NFT album, another marker of the music industry’s inevitable move to Web3.

• LG launched its new NFT marketplace, becoming the second South Korean TV company to do so this year.

• Poolin froze BTC and ETH withdrawals, citing “liquidity issues.” Are mining pools following exchanges and lending platforms into the insolvency era?

• Russia started working on a cross-border stablecoin platform.

And that’s what you need on your crypto radar today. Tune in on Sunday for some serious Merge myth-busting. Until then, we’ll be meal prepping popcorn to carry us through the upcoming upgrade. Sweet popcorn only—that goes without saying. See you soon.

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