This article was compiled and organized by BlockWeeks
In a week where the regulatory and macroeconomic environment was anything but calm, the stablecoin market was unusually busy. Below is a data-driven review of the most important stablecoin developments last week.
USDT briefly depegs, price once dips to $0.995
On the morning of June 15, USDT experienced a slight depeg, with its price touching a low of about $0.995, before recovering to $0.999 that evening. Tether published a blog post pointing out that the timing of this round of selling pressure was rather unusual—it coincided with CoinDesk obtaining historical reserve documents related to Tether's 2021 settlement case from the New York Attorney General's Office (NYAG).
Selling pressure floods into Curve, 3pool severely imbalanced
Since June 12, a large amount of USDT was swapped into USDC and DAI in Curve's 3pool, causing the pool to become severely imbalanced. At its peak on June 15, USDT's share in the 3pool rose above 75%, and the available supply of USDC and DAI in the pool briefly fell below $100 million, before partially rebalancing later that day.
USDT borrowing demand surges on Aave and Compound
Borrowing demand for USDT on the Aave v2 market on Ethereum rose, pushing borrowing rates briefly above 20% on June 15. The USDT market on Compound v2 on Ethereum also saw amplified borrowing demand, with capital utilization exceeding 90%.
Binance swapped 750 million Tron-based USDT for Ethereum-based USDT on June 12
Binance announced on June 12 that it would swap 750 million USDT on the Tron chain for USDT on the Ethereum chain, which Tether subsequently confirmed.
Moderate redemptions follow Tether depeg
After the USDT depeg, Tether received redemption requests totaling about $400 million on June 15, as market participants arbitraged the pricing discrepancy. Tether charges a 0.1% fee on mint/redeem requests based on size, so when USDT's price deviates from the $0.999–1.001 range, an arbitrage window theoretically exists.
TUSD: Prime Trust channel suspended on 6/10, 1.07 billion minted increases supply by over 50%
On June 10, TUSD minting through Prime Trust was suspended. The TUSD team said at the time: "TUSD's minting and redemption services are unaffected and will continue to operate as usual. Our cooperation with other banking institutions remains intact, ensuring smooth transactions." Five days later, on June 15, more than 1.07 billion TUSD on the Tron chain was minted to a Binance address in a single transaction, increasing TUSD's total supply by more than 50%, with the total now exceeding 3 billion.
crvUSD supply hits a new high, Curve founder faces new troubles
Since crvUSD launched last month, its supply has expanded to more than $35 million. Meanwhile, Curve founder Michael Egorov faces new accusations from venture capital firms, while Gauntlet recommended that Aave temporarily freeze the CRV market due to the risky position held by Egorov as the largest holding account.
MakerDAO passes important governance vote, DAI's reliance on USDC continues to decline
On June 15, MakerDAO passed an important executive vote implementing multiple adjustments to the Maker protocol: raising the Dai Savings Rate (DSR) from 1.00% to 3.49%; increasing the debt ceiling of Maker's new lending platform Spark Protocol from 5 million DAI to 20 million; onboarding rETH as a new market to Spark; and including BlockTower Andromeda as RWA015-A.
BUSD continues to be redeemed, DAI reclaims third place in stablecoin market cap
On June 15, after Paxos Treasury burned 95 million BUSD in a single transaction, DAI returned to third place in stablecoin market cap. Earlier in February of this year, Paxos had been ordered to stop new issuance of BUSD.
