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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.
Is $TUSD Tether’s Next Rival?
According to an analysis from crypto market data provider Kaiko on Monday, $BTC/$TUSD became the largest Bitcoin market on Binance last week following a period of overwhelming dominance by $BTC/$USDT as recently as last month.
That was fast 👀
It took less than 1 month for $BTC-$TUSD to become the largest #$BTC market on Binance.
The fee-less pair crossed 50% market share for the first time last week, surpassing $USDT. pic.twitter.com/A78COeMO7r
— Kaiko (@KaikoData) April 17, 2023
$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.
$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.
However, things took a turn when $BUSD issuer Paxos was forced by US regulators to begin winding down operations in February. In search of ways to pivot away from it dependence on $BUSD, Binance quickly began minting tens of millions of dollars in $TUSD. As of April 17, $TUSD’s market cap is over $2 billion, compared to roughly $966 million on February 27.
TrueUSD operates much like Tether, holding over $2.15 billion in bank reserves to back its token. In partnership with Chainlink, the firm uses a real-time proof of reserves system to cryptographically verify that its stablecoin is fully backed at all times.
Binance’s Shift To $TUSD
By late March, Binance had added a host of new $TUSD trading pairs including LDO/$TUSD, MATIC/$TUSD, OP/$TUSD, SOL/$TUSD, SSV/$TUSD, and XRP/$TUSD. It also made $TUSD the sole stablecoin to inherit its zero-fee $BTC trading fee policy after March 22 – the precise point at which $BTC/$TUSD volume on Binance began to overtake other Bitcoin pairs.
TrueUSD’s 24-hour total volume as of April 17 is $226 million. Meanwhile, $USDT’s daily volume is higher than any other cryptocurrency, at $31.5 billion.