Binance sold USDC for another stablecoin — Coinbase CEO

cointelegraph.com:

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s comments to a question about the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin during the company’s second-quarter earning calls raised some eyebrows. 

While commenting on the market cap of USDC, Armstrong quipped that Binance moved some of its funds from USDC into another stablecoin, but despite that, the market cap of USDC has held up.

USDC is the preferred choice of stablecoin on Coinbase, and the crypto exchange is a member of the consortium that owns USDC. Binance crypto exchange once also held a significant amount of USDC reserves; however, based on Armstrong’s comments, it seems the crypto exchange has converted a chunk of its holdings to other stablecoins.

Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase and Binance to confirm the news but did not receive a response by publication.

According to on-chain data, Binance has been redeeming USDC for United States dollars recently, with many market observers believing it is going toward its new stablecoin of choice called First Digital USD (FDUSD).

CZ + Sun have been exiting $USDT via $USDC to get USD. Tether can't redeem billions.New stablecoins emerge. $TUSD denominated volumes went from 0% to 20% in just a few months. #Binance controls 90% of $TUSD supply. This is very simple.The cartel is turning. Please advise. https://t.co/T8PLDNfu2n

However, this isn’t Binance’s first conversion of USDC to other stablecoins. In September 2022, the crypto exchange announced it would auto-convert all user-held USDC on the platform to Binance USD (BUSD), the Binance-branded stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company. At the time, the exchange didn’t reveal whether it planned to sell or convert its reserves to other stablecoins

Binance has long been looking for new stablecoins after the New