The race between stablecoin projects takes another step towards increasing competition, as crypto exchange Huobi minted a new batch of 1,3 million USD-backed HUSD tokens. Crypto exchanges like Binance and Huobi are also joining the race with their own stablecoin projects – the BinanceUSD (BUSD), and HuobiUSD (HUSD).
Despite a slow start, crypto exchange-issued stablecoins are increasing in popularity, with Binance making several increases of the total supply in circulation for its BUSD project in 2020 alone. In early February, Binance issued five million BUSD tokens, in cooperation with PAX Treasury. Just a week after the 5 million BUSD issuance, a new batch of 10 million BUSD tokens entered into circulation. However, Binance is no more a lone warrior in the field of exchange-issued stablecoins, as Huobi also makes a turn towards entering the stablecoin war.
Huobi’s HUSD project was аnnounced in late 2018 when the entire crypto sector was in a bearish state. HUSD didn’t get much traction in 2019 and fell off the radar for stablecoin users. However, now Huobi seems to be reviving the project, putting in fresh HUSD tokens into circulation.
Firstly, at the beginning of February, Huobi issued five million HUSD tokens, divided into three batches of around 1,7 million tokens per batch. Crypto watchdog Whale Alert announced the news. Whale alert also noted that another batch of 1,3 million HUSD tokens entered into circulation on February 27th.
Despite Huobi and Binance jumping into the stablecoin race, Tether still dominates stablecoin transactions. Tether records $60-70 billion in daily trading volumes, while the world’s biggest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization, Bitcoin, recorded $10-15 billion less trading volumes.
One of the most vital selling points of Tether is that the stablecoin is primarily used to enter the crypto sector and buy leading cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, later. Crypto experts tied Tether’s behavior directly to Bitcoin’s price, as Tether’s minting process impacts Bitcoin’s market valuation.
The stablecoin war may also be provoked by Facebook’s plans of launching a native to the social media stablecoin, backed by a basket of currencies. The Libra project, however, caused real regulatory havoc. Furthermore, Telegram’s GRAM token would see further delays due to the continuing federal case, accusing Telegram of an illegal securities offering.
Central banks also showed interest in fiat-pegged digital currencies, with China and Sweden making moves toward issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). China, for example, wants to tie its digital currency to the price of the traditional Renminbi, with plans to digitize China’s economy entirely.
Meanwhile, exchange-issued tokens and stablecoins marked the most significant price increases since the start of 2020. BitMax Token’s (BTMX) price jumped with 34,8%, while Binance Coin (BNB) managed to record a 31,39% price increase. Huobi’s native token – HT, marked a 25% increase.