• TUSD, a stablecoin, has become the fifth largest stablecoin by market cap after Binance started using it.
• The BTC/TUSD trading pair surpassed 50% of Binance’s Bitcoin trading share, overtaking BTC/USDT.
• This was possible due to Binance not charging fees on the TUSD trading pair and using it as its dollar-pegged crypto of choice in late February.
TUSD Surpasses Tether As Binance’s Largest Pair for Bitcoin
TrueUSD (TUSD) has emerged as the fifth largest stablecoin by market cap after Binance began using the token as its dollar-pegged crypto of choice in late February. Last week, the BTC/TUSD trading pair surpassed 50% of Binance’s Bitcoin trading share, overtaking BTC/USDT.
What is Tether?
USDT was launched by Tether back in 2014 as one of the first-dollar-pegged stablecoins, and remains the largest of such tokens by market cap today. Capturing over $80 billion in value as of April 2023, it maintains its peg to the dollar using liquid reserves comprised of both cash and short-term US Treasury bills.
How Did USDT Gain Dominance?
USDT gained significant ground against Circle’s USDC – one of its largest competitors – when Binance replaced the latter cryptocurrency at its exchange with BUSD in September. Tether’s market cap benefitted further after USDC temporarily depegged from the dollar amid the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March.
Why Is There a Shift Towards TUSD?
However, things took a turn when BUSD issuer Paxos was forced by US regulators to begin winding down their operations on April 26th 2021 leading traders to migrate towards alternatives such as TrueUSD instead due to no fees being charged on it’s pairings with Bitcoin or Ethereum on Binance.
Conclusion
The surge in demand for stablecoins shows that users are becoming more savvy about their asset allocations and are increasingly looking for ways they can store value without incurring excessive risk or cost while doing so. Whether this trend continues remains yet to be seen but for now we can see how there is increasing interest for alternative options other than USDT when it comes to digital assets pegged to fiat currency such as USD.