In the world of cryptocurrencies, the era of Binance USD (BUSD) ended today. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has terminated its support for BUSD as of today, following Paxos’s decision to stop issuing the stablecoin.
Binance had rolled up its sleeves after the US-based cryptocurrency company Paxos decided to halt the issuance of new BUSD tokens, and had been actively removing BUSD trading pairs. Until today, the cryptocurrency exchange removed dozens of BUSD trading pairs from all its platforms, including spot markets, futures, and margin trading. Indeed, as of today, the cryptocurrency exchange has completely ended all support for BUSD.
Users were able to withdraw their BUSD from Binance or convert them into other cryptocurrencies listed on Binance. To facilitate BUSD holders, the cryptocurrency exchange had offered several options, such as converting their BUSD to another stablecoin, First Digital USD (FDUSD), with zero transaction fees, or converting their BUSD balances to FDUSD at a 1:1 conversion rate through Binance Convert with zero transaction fees.
Furthermore, Binance will convert the collateral assets of Binance-Peg BUSD to FDUSD at a 1:1 conversion rate expected to take place this month. Following the completion of the collateral conversion, the cryptocurrency exchange will make a separate announcement to inform its users.
The process began with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sending a Wells Notice to Paxos in February of this year, indicating that BUSD was an unregistered security. Following the SEC’s notice, the New York Department of Financial Services also ordered Paxos to cease the issuance of BUSD, and the cryptocurrency company complied.
BUSD used to be among the largest stablecoins by market value before August. The stablecoin saw its peak market value at $23.3 billion in November 2022. The current market value of the asset is $1.25 billion, which signifies a 95% decrease over the last year.