FTX Fraud Pushed Traders Into Stablecoins: Galaxy

USDT was the dominant leader in stablecoin trading volume, but a competitor has now surpassed it

article-image

Blockworks Exclusive art by axel rangel

share

As risk-off sentiment continues to dominate cryptocurrency trading patterns, investors are putting more money into what they hope is a safe haven: stablecoins. Stablecoin trading volume has been on the rise since news of FTX’s collapse broke and fears of contagion rocked the industry.  

Daily stablecoin trading volume surpassed $200 billion on Nov. 5, when concerns about FTX’s liquidity spiked, and on Nov. 8, when it looked like Binance might buy FTX, according to data from CoinGecko. Stablecoins USDT and BUSD led the volumes as the deal collapsed and FTX headed for bankruptcy.

But of the two, BUSD volume is the one surging, according to Galaxy Digital, in a report published Friday.

“Historically, USDT has been the dominant leader in stablecoin trading volume as it is the underlying currency to quote trading pairs at several large exchanges,” Charles Yu, research associate at Galaxy Digital, wrote. “The large increase in BUSD trading volume could be due to Binance’s decision to consolidate its order books and convert user balances in several stablecoins (incl. USDC, USDP, & TUSD) to BUSD as of September 29th.” 

As investors continue to fear for security and liquidity, traders have moved funds off of centralized exchanges, Yu noted.  

“According to Nansen data, FTX and FTX US collectively hold $78m in stablecoins on Ethereum, down [about] 40% since November 6,” Yu said. “Binance is the largest holder of stablecoins on Ethereum with [roughly $25 billion], about 10x the balance of its closest CEX competitor (OKX) and over 80x the balance of Coinbase.”

As the liquidity crisis continues, some exchanges have temporarily suspended deposits or withdrawals of USDC and USDT issued on the Solana blockchain, including Crypto.com, OKX and Binance, which has since reopened deposits for USDT. 

Circle, the company behind USDC, reported that it had miscalculated its financial projections in a Nov. 14 SEC filing. Circle’s issuance dropped $3 billion, the company said, a drop that can be attributed to Binance’s USDC to BUSD auto-conversions and FTX’s implosion.

“Stablecoins issued by crypto exchanges, major existing global payments companies and banks, and decentralized algorithmic tokens, are likely to increase competitive pressure on Circle stablecoins, and could slow our growth, or cause significant declines, negatively impacting the financial outlook of the company,” the filing read. 

At least one positive takeaway from this recent turmoil is that stablecoin systems have proven to be functional as issuers continue to process redemptions in an orderly fashion and any depeggings have been slight and temporary, Yu noted. 

“In May, we saw massive outflows from USDT to USDC from peg risk,” Dan Smith, research analyst at Blockworks, said. “We see the same thing again more recently, on a much smaller scale, but this time BUSD is getting some of the love.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Polygon Call Template (2).png

Research

A significant portion of the call was dedicated to discussing the proposed ZK-PoS Phase 1, which aims to connect Polygon PoS to the AggLayer using a ZK proof of consensus, in addition to a pessimistic proof. This upgrade is intended to generalize how chains settle while protecting chain health and asset integrity. The implementation will involve deploying new contracts for the LxLy unified bridge for token mapping and migrating existing tokens from the PoS portal to the new deployment.

article-image

It may be counterintuitive that a high amount of focus on a technology would lead to security risks — but it’s true

article-image

Structured products are common in traditional finance, but onchain options are scant

article-image

Plus, an update on the ether ETF front and an overview of this week’s economic calendar

article-image

Plus, Solana fell roughly 12% on the week, and for some memecoins the drawdown was even more aggressive

article-image

Mark Wong is currently seeing some profit-taking from early bitcoin adopters, but he also sees buying interest from institutions

article-image

Bitcoin has been in a bull market for 19 months. If March wasn’t the top, that is.