DeFi and Stablecoin Crypto Updates: Nostra Pauses Borrowing, USDC Hits Japan, Bullish?
DeFi crypto-based lending protocol Nostra pauses all borrowings against two tokens. xSTRK and sSTRK spiked 3 times their actual price, which resulted in freezing new collateral deposits. Nostra platform urges their users to exit all positions before things get worse.
Meanwhile, crypto-based firm Circle, which issues
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, is entering the Japanese crypto world. This news is very bullish. Japan is one of the biggest economies per GDP in the world, and this means fresh money gonna enter crypto.
What happened with Nostra, and why is this good?
A crypto price feed error occurred within Nostra, a DeFi crypto lending protocol on Starknet. Prices for xSTRk and sSTRK, which are derivatives of Starknet’s native STRK token, went three times higher. This resulted in misclassifying some of the borrowing positions as riskier than they were and halting all borrowings. That being said, this means they can be liquidated, and people can lose their assets.
#Nostra #DeFi lending platform paused its lending services
due to a price oracle error @nostrafinance
where the price of $xSTRK and $sSTRK was inflated by around 3x
This could lead to unnecessary liquidation risks . The platform advises users to withdraw assets… pic.twitter.com/9cXjRUxo6F
— ShadowCipher (@ShadowCipher_) March 25, 2025
However, the Nostra platform reacted quickly and warned borrowers to withdraw their funds before things worsened. This mismatch in price could have triggered forced liquidations.
The root of the problem lies in the price feed source that they had. Because there was no secondary Oracle service, the team had no backup feed source that could fix the problem. Undoubtedly, Nostra team acknowledged that safety is the number one priority and a reliable alternative should be made.
Nostra is one of the prominent DeFi crypto projects that is built upon the Starknet ecosystem. Additionally, Starknet is L2 zero-knowledge proof project built on the Ethereum blockchain. The total value locked (TVL) of Nostra is valued around $55 million; Starknet TVL sits around ~$575 million.
The way Nostra protocol works is that you can deposit Ether or Stablecoin like USDC or USDT as collateral and, on the other hand, receive a loan. Then, borrow supported assets (usually stablecoins) on their protocol. One thing that they did recently was create their own stablecoin UNO. You can borrow native stablecoin, which is optimized for use across Starknet dapps. Furthermore, if the value of your collateral drops too much, there is a risk that your position will be liquidated.
Although this looks like something bad, we can see this is a huge step in improving security and transparency.
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Circle entering Japan Crypto market
USDC crypto stablecoin is entering Japan crypto market. After Circle’s stablecoin gets recognized by MiCA regulations in Europe, they focused on another market. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) approved USDC to be the first dollar-backed stablecoin authorized for use in Japan.
Licensed exchanges will be listing USDC and stablecoins finally in Japan. pic.twitter.com/HGXwgbbl13
— hisashi.sol | Superteam Japan (@leomarudesu) March 6, 2025
The launch would be made through a strategic partnership with SBI Holdings. They are a big Japanese financial conglomerate. SBI VC Trade, which is a subsidiary of SBI Holdings, will launch USDC on March 26, 2025. Furthermore, all major crypto exchanges like Binance Japan, Bitbank, etc., committed to listing and distributing USDC.
Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, highlighted Japan’s adoption of blockchain technology and the evolution of the country’s digital economy. He pointed out the clear regulatory frameworks for stablecoins in Japan and USDC’s position as a secure and transparent digital dollar.
Without a doubt, this is a strategic partnership that will open new doors for both parties. Giving the crypto world a new field to shine.
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