Exchanges

Binance removes BUSD from SAFU fund — adds TUSD, USDT

Published

6 days ago

March 17, 2023

Binance removes BUSD from SAFU fund — adds TUSD, USDT Assad Jafri · 4 hours ago · 2 min read

Binance said the move was necessary following Paxos’ decision to stop minting BUSD — which will result in a gradual market cap reduction.

2 min read

Updated: March 17, 2023 at 6:02 pm

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate

Binance will no longer hold BUSD in its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and has swapped the stablecoin for ERC-20 TUSD and BEP-20 USDT, according to a March 17 press release.

The world’s largest crypto exchange said the swap was seamless and will not affect users. It also provided the wallet addresses where it is holding the funds.

Binance said the move was necessary following Paxos’ decision to stop minting BUSD — which will result in a gradual market cap reduction.

“This swap is to ensure that assets in SAFU continue to protect users in the long term as the BUSD market capitalization continues to decrease over time.”

BUSD’s peg to the dollar was not affected by the announcement.

SAFU wallets

The SAFU fund was set up in 2018 and is made up of three wallets that Binance shares publicly. The exchange previously held Bitcoin, BNB, and BUSD in the fund.

The USDT was added to the same address the exchange uses for its BNB SAFU holdings. On-chain data shows the wallet currently holds roughly $450 million worth of BNB and about $100 million in USDT.

Meanwhile, the TUSD wallet shows the exchange is holding $100.3 million worth of the stablecoin.

Based on the SAFU BTC wallet, the exchange currently holds 16,277 BTC in the fund — worth approximately $428 million as of press time.

Paxos and BUSD

New York-based blockchain firm Paxos was the primary issuer of the BUSD stablecoin.

In February, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered the company to stop issuing the stablecoin, citing oversights in its relationship with Binance.

The regulator said in a statement at the time:

“The Department is monitoring Paxos closely to verify that the company can facilitate redemptions in an orderly fashion subject to enhanced, risk-based, compliance protocols.”

Paxos, in turn, announced that it would adhere to the regulator’s orders and would end its relationship with Binance.

The company is also reportedly facing regulatory action from the U.S. SEC over issuing BUSD as an unregistered security. However, the regulator has not made an official move in the weeks since the NYDFS order.

If the SEC does decide to pursue legal action, it could imply similar consequences for other stablecoins.

Airdrop

Arbitrum Airdrop Goes Live: ARB Price Drops More Than 85%

Published

5 hours ago

March 23, 2023

Jamie Redman

Arbitrum Airdrop Goes Live: ARB Price Drops More Than 85%

On Thursday, the Arbitrum airdrop claiming process went live and ARB markets dropped more than 85% lower than pre-IOU market prices recorded the day before. Arbitrum airdropped just over a billion ARB tokens, or 11.6% of the total supply. At noon ET, more than 474 million tokens had been claimed.

Wild Volatility for ARB Token: Prices Range from $1.10 to $11.80 per Unit Following Airdrop

At block height 16,890,400, around 9 a.m. ET, the Arbitrum airdrop claiming process began and distribution of 11.6% of the supply started. The day before, Bitcoin.com News reported on exchanges listing IOU ARB markets just before the real ARB token launched on Thursday. At that time, ARB’s value in U.S. dollars was more than 85% higher. At the time of writing, a single ARB was trading for $1.25 per unit. The ARB token has seen wild volatility over the last 12 hours with prices ranging from $1.10 to $11.80 per ARB.

ARB’s price has been down despite bitcoin nearing $29,000 and ethereum rising to $1,855 per unit. ARB trade volume is much higher than the ARB IOU volumes recorded yesterday at $8.7 million. In the past 24 hours, roughly $849.81 million in ARB volume has been recorded. The top three crypto exchanges with the most ARB trading activity are Binance, Okx, and Bybit.

With 1.275 billion ARB in circulation, 474 million have been claimed by 244,255 unique addresses. Thirty-nine percent of eligible addresses have been claimed and more than 40% of the airdropped ARB has been received by recipients. At $1.25 per unit, ARB’s overall market valuation was $1.6 billion on Thursday afternoon at noon ET.

Tags in this story

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What do you think about the Arbitrum airdrop and its impact on the crypto market? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Exchanges

Coinbase CEO sells shares prior to SEC warning

Published

12 hours ago

March 23, 2023

Zeynep Geylan

Coinbase CEO sells shares prior to SEC warning Zeynep Geylan · 5 hours ago · 2 min read

Brian Armstrong issued three transactions to sell Coinbase shares on March 15 and 21, according to recent data.

2 min read

Updated: March 23, 2023 at 11:08 am

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold Coinbase shares prior to receiving a warning from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to data shared on Twitter by crypto sleuth, @theirish_man.

Armstong has been selling his shares since November 2022, but the three sales transactions recorded days before the SEC warning caused Coinbase shares to drop by 10% have raised concerns within the community.

The sales

The data shows that Armstrong facilitated four sales transactions since the beginning of March – on Mar. 3, Mar. 15, and two on Mar. 21. He sold a total of 89,196 Coinbase shares — which add up to $5,871,561 in value. Almost half of this amount was sold within the 24 hours before the SEC warning.

Brian Armstrong’s sale transactions (Source: @theirish_man)

Most recent sales were recorded on Mar. 21. Armstrong issued two transactions to sell from the prices of $75.31 and $75.51, respectively. The SEC warning was publicized on Mar. 22, which dropped share prices by over 10%. At the time of writing, Coinbase share price sits at $77.14 — making a 8.16% fall in price in the last 24 hours.

According to the numbers, Armstrong has been selling Coinbase shares almost regularly since November 2022. He issued two sale transactions per month in November 2022, December 2022, and January. In February and March, he increased the amount sold by giving three transactions per month.

The SEC warning

The SEC issued a Wells notice to Coinbase on Mar. 22. The Wells notice means that the SEC has made a preliminary determination to recommend an enforcement action against the exchange. The filing specifies that the upcoming enforcement action will likely concern parts of Coinbase’s main trading platform and its other services — such as Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet.

Upon first response, Coinbase said it is confident in its services and it “welcomes a legal process,” indicating that it will fight with the SEC. The crypto community also revealed its stance by rallying behind Coinbase. Executives of the crypto sphere started to question if the SEC’s warning was a deliberate attempt to stifle the market.

Binance

Binance’s Bitcoin liquidity for TUSD surges 250%

Published

13 hours ago

March 23, 2023

Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Binance’s Bitcoin liquidity for TUSD surges 250% Oluwapelumi Adejumo · 6 hours ago · 2 min read

Kaiko’s director of research Clara Medalie said the zero-trading fee option helped improve Binance’s market share by 20% within eight months.

2 min read

Updated: March 23, 2023 at 10:20 am

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate

Binance’s Bitcoin (BTC) liquidity for its TrueUSD (TUSD) rose more than 250% on March 22 after it phased out its zero-fee trading for other stablecoins.

Kaiko Data researcher Riyad Carey highlighted that the exchange’s BTC liquidity for Binance USD (BUSD) and Tether’s USDT declined by 60% and 70%, respectively.

Source: Kaiko

Meanwhile, the exchange’s liquidity for TUSD increased to 29 BTC from 9 BTC within a few hours.

On March 15, Binance announced it was moving the zero-fee BTC trading feature from BUSD to TUSD on March 22. At the time, CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao blamed the regulatory upheaval the other stablecoins faced for the firm’s decision.

Will this decision affect Binance’s market share?

Kaiko’s director of research, Clara Medalie, highlighted the role the zero-trading fee option played in improving Binance’s market share.

Source: Kaiko

According to Medalie, the free trading option helped Binance gain an additional 20% of the market since it was introduced in July 2022. At the time, Binance controlled only 50.5% of the market; however, the exchange’s market control increased to 72% following FTX’s collapse in November 2022.

Source: Kaiko

Additional information from Kaiko pointed out that the zero-trading option accounted for 61% of the total volume on Binance as of the previous week.

Binance users drawn to the exchange because of its zero-fee feature could leave for other rival platforms, Medalie noted.

TUSD keeps growing

Binance’s decision would greatly benefit TUSD — emerging as a significant winner from its rivals’ recent debacle.

Carey added that Binance’s decision showed that it had made an apparent move to promote TUSD as the successor to BUSD.

Since the crackdown on BUSD, TUSD has seen its circulating supply double to over $2 billion and become the second-largest stablecoin on the Tron network. During the period, Binance minted more TUSD stablecoin and added new trading pairs for the asset.

Meanwhile, Protos’ researcher Bennett Tomlin pointed out that TUSD is one of the weirdest stablecoins in the crypto market. According to the researcher, TUSD has some undisclosed relations with Justin Sun, and bankrupt Alameda Research was also a lead investor in the asset.