On March 5th, the value of Binance-backed stablecoin First Digital USD (FDUSD) briefly dropped to $0.92.
The “stablecoin” quickly regained parity with the US dollar.
FDUSD was launched in June 2023 by the Hong Kong-based custodial and trust company First Digital. The asset is available on the Ethereum and BNB Chain networks.
A month later, Binance listed the asset with a zero trading fee promotion.
In early August, then-CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao criticized Tether’s USDT, calling the largest stablecoin by market capitalization a “black box” with a “certain” level of risk. It was subsequently revealed that the exchange had converted part of its USD Coin (USDC) reserves into another coin.
The exchange later informed users of its intention to cease support for its own stablecoin BUSD in 2024. Binance suggested clients convert their holdings to FDUSD.
Analysts at Kaiko noted that the initial support measures by the exchange did not lead to a significant increase in the new stablecoin’s popularity among users. However, in February 2024, experts from The Block observed that spot trading volumes on Binance with FDUSD reached 38% of the total volume.
According to CoinGecko, over the past 24 hours, Binance has again been the largest market for First Digital’s coin.
The service identifies FDUSD as the fourth-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $3 billion. It significantly trails the segment leader USDT ($99 billion), but its growth over the month was 20%.
Earlier, Adrian Orr, Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, described the term “stablecoin” as an oxymoron.