Small-cap Stablecoins Struggle to Maintain Peg as Crypto Market Crashes
Some smaller-cap stablecoins are struggling to maintain their targeted peg, which is mainly USD 1, amid a huge bloodbath in crypto that has wiped off billions from the market.
The development follows a depeg seen by Terra (LUNA)’s decentralized stablecoin UST, which seems to have placed the entire market into jeopardy. At 10:30 UTC, UST was down 17.5% to USD 0.4.
Notably, algorithmic stablecoins have been hit the most. For one, Neutrino USD (USDN), an algorithmic stablecoin within the Waves blockchain ecosystem that aims to maintain a USD 1 peg, has been distancing from its peg. Currently, the coin is trading at USD 0.77, down by 17.6% over the past 24 hours.
Likewise, sUSD (SUSD), a synthetic stablecoin asset on Synthetix (SNX), the value of which tracks that of the US Dollar and has a circulating supply of over USD 110m, has lost 4% over the past day, dropping to USD 0.949.
Other fiat-backed stablecoins have also fluctuated wildly. BiLira (TRYB), a stablecoin backed by the Turkish Lira, has dropped 0.6% to USD 0.063, while Zasset zUSD (ZUSD), a programmable dollar-backed stablecoin, has plunged to USD 0.89, down by 5.6%.
Meanwhile, some in the cryptoworld argued that Tron (TRX)’s recently-launched algorithmic stablecoin USDD is also struggling to keep its peg. According to a recent tweet by Tron founder Justin Sun, however, the stablecoin is trading between USD 0.995 to USD 1.005 on the Poloniex exchange. Per CoinGecko, it currently trades at USD 0.99 and has generally been trading around USD 1 over the past week.
Currently #USDD is 0.995-1.005 on #TRON, #BNBChain and #Ethereum. It is a good arbitrage trading opportunity on @Poloniex!
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) May 12, 2022
Aside from the small-cap stablecoins, tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin with a circulating supply of over USD 82.7bn, had also slightly distanced from its intended USD 1 peg as investors are redeeming USDT tokens to fiat currency at an unprecedented rate – before regaining its peg. It’s currently trading at USD 1, according to CoinGecko.
Some in the crypto community voiced concern that a USDT depegging could be catastrophic for the industry, which is already bleeding hard from the collapse of a much smaller stablecoin.
“You thought 20 Billion vanishing into thin air was bad? Try 80 billion,” one Twitter user said. “The scary part is that everyone knows that Tether is a timebomb Ponzi just waiting to collapse.”
🚨Contagion is spreading in the crypto markets.🚨$USDT is starting to look a little shaky on the heels of $UST collapse.
— Moonstreet 📈 (@Moonstreet91) May 11, 2022
If #Tether falls it will be cataclysmic. pic.twitter.com/HWSYz3dGZL
USD coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin with a circulating supply of USD 49.76bn, is currently trading at USD 1.02. It traded between 0.99 and 1.06 over the past 24 hours.
Binance-launched binance USD (BUSD) is currently trading at USD 1.01, and it too has seen sudden movements between USD 0.96 and USD 1.07 over the past day.
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Learn more:
– LUNA Dives Below USD 0.05, UST Trends Lower Despite New Rescue Plans
– Citadel Securities, BlackRock Claim They Had No Role in the UST Collapse
– Neutrino USD Loses Peg as WAVES Dives, But Developer Claims It Will be ‘Absolutely Fine Very Soon’
– Market Panic Puts Tether Peg Under Pressure
– Tron’s Justin Sun Launches ‘Most Decentralized Stablecoin,’ Bitcoin Might Get a Role Here Too
– USDT vs. USDC vs. UST: How Do They Compare?
