On December 13, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance, resumed processing withdrawals of USDC, a stablecoin, following an hour-long hiatus.
The cryptocurrency exchange announced the return of $USDC withdrawals in a tweet: “$USDC withdrawals are back online. Thank you for your patience.”
According to a report by Seeking Alpha published on Tuesday, this means that a token swap including USDC has been completed, meaning that one cryptocurrency has been exchanged for the other without the usage of fiat currencies. While the token swap was being executed, the exchange temporarily disabled USDC withdrawals.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated:
“However, the channel to swap from PAX/BUSD to USDC requires going through a bank in NY in USD. The banks are not open for another few hours.”
In the same tweet, Zhao clarified that there are “no margins or leverage involved,” meaning that the exchanges are truly “1:1.” He added that Binance will aim to create more fluid trade channels, and users can withdraw other stablecoins.
Binance announced the conversion of user balances and new reserves of USDC and two other stablecoins into the company’s own internally produced stablecoin, BUSD. Investment bank JPMorgan confirmed that Binance’s move to convert some stablecoins to its BUSD and Tether (USDT) will boost Tether.
Debut of “Binance Pay” in the US
On the same day that the exchange stopped and then started letting people withdraw USDC, Binance Pay became available to American customers.
Binance users outside the U.S. have had access to this service since last year, allowing them to send money using the mobile app. With the Pay feature, customers may instantly and cheaply send and receive any of the approximately 150 supported cryptocurrencies to and from other Pay users.
It is also worth noting that on Monday, Binance saw a rush of withdrawals as people worried regarding their proof of reserve report. The blockchain intelligence firm DefiLlama said that 24-hour net outflows exceeded $3.8 billion.
