The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has acknowledged that it does not currently have any plans to “auto-convert” Tether (USDT) to Binance USD (BUSD), but that this “may change.”
A spokesperson for Binance confirmed to Cointelegraph that there are no plans at the moment to do the same for USDT, but added that this may change in the future:
“We do not have plans to auto-convert USDT to BUSD as of now, but may change.”
The spokesperson added that the decision to stop providing most trading services for USDC and the auto-conversion is “not temporary measures” and “will continue.”
Binance to discontinue USDC trading
The cryptocurrency exchange shocked the market on September 6 by announcing it would stop supporting USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, along with USDP Stablecoin (USDP), and TrueUSD on its platform (TUSD).
On September 29, users who are still holding any of the three stablecoins will start to automatically convert those holdings to BUSD at a 1:1 ratio over a 24-hour period.
While Tether USDT, the largest stablecoin by market cap, was not mentioned, Binance claimed that the decision was made to improve liquidity and capital efficiency for users.
According to a Sept. 6 tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the company is “just merging all liquidity into one pair” and will provide users with the “best price, lowest slippage” rather than delisting the three stablecoins.
Additionally, the exchange will switch most of the pairings over to BUSD and remove the extensive list of spot trading asset pairs paired to these stablecoins.
Users should also be cautious about using USDC in the exchange’s staking, savings, liquid swaps, or loans because those services will also be discontinued for that asset.
Binance’s action coincides with a brief suspension of Ether (ETH) and Wrapped ETH (wETH) withdrawals and deposits on particular networks from September 6 until the end of the month.