WazirX removes USDC and converts user holdings to BUSD

Indian exchange WazirX will adopt BUSD auto-conversion in October for balances of USDC, USDP, and TUSD at a 1:1 ratio, just like Binance.

On Monday, WazirX formally said that it had ceased accepting deposits for USDC as well as for other stablecoins including Pax Dollar (USDP) and TrueUSD (TUSD).

The platform will instead provide customers with the BUSD stablecoin to improve liquidity and capital efficiency, according to the release. On October 5, WazirX will deploy BUSD auto-conversion at a 1:1 ratio for customers’ current balances of USDC, USDP, and TUSD, the company announced.

According to the exchange, USDC, USDP, and TUSD withdrawals will be suspended after 5 PM IST on September 23. On September 26, spot market pairs for all three stablecoins will be delisted.

Data from CoinGecko shows that prior to the announcement, WazirX was only trading a little quantity of USDC. As of this writing, Tether (USDT), which has $3,400 in daily transactions, is the sole USDC trading pair available on WazirX.

The daily trading volumes for BUSD’s two trading pairings on WazirX are $5,700 and $5,200, respectively. BUSD is traded against the USDT stablecoin and the Indian rupee.

USDC Delisting

USDC is second biggest stablecoin as per the marketcap, launched by the licenced fintech company Circle and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. USDT is the largest stablecoin. The market capitalization of USDC is $50 billion at the time of writing, less than the competing stablecoin USDT by more than $17 billion. According to CoinGecko, BUSD, the third-largest stablecoin by value, has a market valuation of $20.6 billion.

Shortly after Binance announced plans to remove USDC as a tradeable asset from its platform, USDC has once again been delisted. Binance announced that it will automatically convert USDC, USDP, and TUSD holdings into BUSD in order to increase liquidity, similar to WazirX.

Following regulatory investigation into the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX in August, Binance denied having any equity participation in the latter. In connection with a probe into the company for possible money laundering, India’s Directorate of Enforcement earlier froze more than $8.1 million in funds on WazirX.

Up And Down For WazirX

One of the directors of Zanmai Lab Private Ltd, which controls the cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, had his bank account frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 5. The bank amount was about Rs 64.67 crore.

Earlier this month, as part of its campaign against Chinese loan applications, many of which are accused of money laundering, the ED investigated six locations in Bengaluru belonging to fintech firms Paytm Payment Services, Razorpay, and Cashfree Payments.

WazirX has suffered a great deal as a result of the ED inquiry, as US-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance has all but abandoned the business. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claimed the company does not control the Indian cryptocurrency exchange a few hours after the ED frozen WazirX accounts; the deal was anticipated to close in 2019.

Do you believe that the delisting of USDC by reputable exchanges would harm USDC’s reputation? Comment below.

Discuss this news on our Telegram Community. Subscribe to us on Google news and do follow us on Twitter @Blockmanity

Did you like the news you just read? Please leave a feedback to help us serve you better

Disclaimer: Blockmanity is a news portal and does not provide any financial advice. Blockmanity's role is to inform the cryptocurrency and blockchain community about what's going on in this space. Please do your own due diligence before making any investment. Blockmanity won't be responsible for any loss of funds.