In a strategic move to safeguard stablecoin liquidity, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced plans to swap 750 million tether-tron token pairs for tether-ether. The exchange shared this news via a tweet on Monday, outlining its efforts to maintain stability in the face of regulatory scrutiny and recent setbacks, such as the lawsuit filed against Binance by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The swap process, which is set to commence after 12 p.m. UTC on Monday, will be conducted directly with the tether team, as highlighted in the tweet. Tether, the leading stablecoin striving for a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar, will undertake this swap initiative with tron, the ninth largest cryptocurrency with a market value of $6.3 billion, and ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, with a market capitalization of $210 billion.
The SEC's legal action against Binance, CEO Changpeng Zhao, and Binance.US's operations has further heightened the need for precautionary measures. The lawsuit, consisting of 13 charges, accuses Binance of engaging in deceptive practices, including inflating trading volumes, misappropriating customer funds, and exerting undisclosed control over the U.S. entity while proclaiming independence.
As a result, Binance will temporarily suspend dollar withdrawal channels from as early as June 13, as mandated by the SEC's request to freeze the exchange's assets. In a related move, trading platform Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) announced the delisting of three cryptocurrency tokens from its platform, as these assets were identified as securities in the SEC's lawsuit against Binance.
The SEC has previously charged the Tron Foundation and its founder Justin Sun with fraud in March. Following this, Binance's U.S. arm revealed plans to remove the digital asset token tron from its trading platform.
To enhance stablecoin liquidity across various chains, Tether's treasury has executed a $750 million USDT transaction with Binance. The funds were sent in three batches of $250 million each, following a successful $10 test transaction. This transaction occurred on June 12, according to blockchain analytical firm Arkham Intelligence.
Notably, Tether's CTO, Paolo Ardoino, announced on Twitter that the stablecoin issuer would mint 1 billion USDT tokens to replenish its inventory on the Ethereum blockchain. Arkham Intelligence corroborated this statement, confirming that this was Tether's first token minting on Ethereum since late April. As of 12 hours ago, the stablecoin issuer held only $146 million USDT on the Ethereum blockchain.
Ardoino clarified that the minted tokens were authorized but not issued, implying that the amount will serve as inventory for future issuance requests and chain swaps. Chain swaps involve transferring cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another, typically upon an exchange's request to balance funds across different chains.
Despite ongoing regulatory challenges, Tether continues to dominate the stablecoin market, boasting a market capitalization of $83.38 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $20.89 billion, according to data from CryptoSlate.
As Binance navigates the stormy waters of regulatory battles, its outflows have exceeded $3 billion in the past week, according to data from DeFillama. The recent developments and initiatives undertaken by Binance and Tether reflect their concerted efforts to maintain stability and address liquidity concerns amidst the regulatory landscape.
