Binance said it would stop supporting BUSD on December 15 after stablecoin issuer Paxos was ordered to stop issuing the token earlier this year.
The cryptocurrency exchange said in August that it planned to ‘gradually’ cease support for the BUSD stablecoin by February 2024. At the time, BUSD urged customers to switch to another stablecoin called FDUSD. According to Binance, users can still convert without any fees.
“Paxos has stated that BUSD will remain backed by Paxos and can be redeemed through at least: February 2024,” Binance said in a blog post.
In February of this year, the New York Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, or Binance USD.
Binance Settlement
Throughout this year, U.S. authorities have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to crack down on cryptocurrency organizations, including Binance. The exchange recently agreed to pay a fine of more than $4 billion after CEO Changpeng Zhao left the company after pleading guilty to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
BUSD is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar launched in 2019 by Binance and Paxos. At one point, the token was ranked as the third-largest stablecoin on the market, with a total supply of over $16 billion. Paxos recently revealed that it would issue a USD-backed stablecoin called PYUSD for traditional fintech PayPal.
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About the author
RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block, covering a variety of topics including US-based companies, blockchain games, NFTs, and more. He previously covered entertainment for The Wall Street Journal, writing about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy, focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previously, she covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil at Bloomberg. She interviewed a wide range of figures for RT, including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers, and convicted criminals. She holds a Master’s degree in Digital Sociology.