By George Ward
The crypto world has been abuzz over the recent news that Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has started listing multiple cryptocurrencies with the TrueUSD (TUSD). The TrueUSD, a stablecoin backed by the US Dollar, is reportedly linked to Tron founder Justin Sun.
This news has caused unease amongst the crypto community due to the perception that Sun has been unduly attempting to influence the cryptocurrency market.
Binance Announces Inclusion Of Trueusd As A Trading Pair
On Tuesday, Binance announced the inclusion of TrueUSD (TUSD) to its list of supported cryptocurrencies, extending its support for the stablecoin reportedly associated with Tron founder Justin Sun. This move has raised questions amongst the crypto community, as Binance intends to replace BUSD, its stablecoin, with TUSD as the base trading pair.
Binance declared it would add six more crypto assets to be traded against TrueUSD (TUSD). These assets include LDO, XRP, Polygon (MATIC), SOL, SSV, and OP. Starting March 29 at 08:00 UTC, users can trade on the following crypto pairs MATIC/TUSD, LDO/TUSD, OP/TUSD, SSV/TUSD, XRP/TUSD, and SOL/TUSD.
Also, they will enjoy zero fees for trading these new pairs.
Is Justin Sun’s TUSD Stablecoin Responsible for Binance’s CFTC Regulatory Issues?
Crypto community members have expressed concern with Binance’s strong backing of TrueUSD. The market cap of TrueUSD increased from $1.3 billion to $2.08 billion between March 12-13 after the closure of Signature Bank, a crypto-friendly bank.
Analysts attribute this significant increase to the large amount of TUSD minted by Justin Sun and Binance. Meanwhile, the US CFTC alleged that Binance and CZ violated crypto trading and derivatives regulations.
In response, Binance CEO Zhao rejected the CFTC’s claims, stating that the lawsuit was “a selective presentation of facts.” On March 15, Binance announced alterations to its zero-fee Bitcoin trading plan and BUSD zero-maker fee promotion, leaving BTC/TUSD as the only zero-charge spot trading pair beginning from March 22.
This came after the US regulators ordered Paxos to discontinue minting BUSD. Consequently, Binance responded by transforming BUSD holdings in the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) fund to TUSD and USDT.
Data suggests a dramatic drop in daily trading volume on Binance following the firm’s decision to stop offering no-fee trading on all pairs except for TUSD. The Bitcoin trading volume for its BTC/USDT pair plummeted 90% following the announcement.
Nevertheless, trading activity on the TUSD pair remained relatively low.