BUSD Stablecoin Temporarily Plunges to 20 Cents on Binance

The stablecoin – which currently finds itself in the middle of a regulatory tussle – immediately regained its $1 peg.

AccessTimeIconFeb 22, 2023 at 2:18 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:08 a.m. UTC
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Binance USD (BUSD), the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, quickly dropped to a low of 20 cents against the DAI stablecoin on Wednesday morning as liquidity dried up on the Binance crypto exchange.

The plunge was triggered by a single $647,000 market sell order, which prompted a cascade of slippage down to 20 cents. BUSD immediately regained its peg on Binance against DAI as arbitrage traders could feasibly purchase it for below $1 on Binance and sell for $1 on another exchange.

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  • At press time, there are $3.38 million in aggregated sell orders down from the $1 dollar peg to 20 cents, meaning that it would require a $3.38 million market sell to again take price to that level, according to Binance's orderbook.

    For Wednesday's $647,000 sell order to trigger a move to the downside of that magnitude meant liquidity was either pulled from the book shortly before the sale was made, or a pricing error failed to account for resting buy orders.

    BUSD has been embroiled in a regulatory tussle after the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered Paxos to stop issuing the stablecoin, a move that will see BUSD supply trend towards zero over time.

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    Oliver Knight

    Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.


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