By
Steve Muchoki
May 10th, 2024
This delisting comes two weeks after global crypto exchange Binance announced its plans to delist USDC.
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has announced that it will delist USD Coin (USDC) from its platform. The exchange has halted deposits of USDC and will implement BUSD auto-conversion for user balances of USDC, Pax Dollar (USDP) and TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoins on October 5. The exchange will auto-convert balances of the stablecoins to BUSD at a ratio of 1:1.
Withdrawals of the stablecoins will be supported until 5 PM IST on September 23, 2022. The exchange will delist Delist USDC, USDP, and TUSD spot market pairs at 07:30 AM IST on 26th September 2022. According to the Monday announcement, “users will be able to view their USDC, USDP and TUSD balances under the BUSD-denominated account balance when the conversion is complete” and WazirX could make changes to the list of stablecoin eligible for auto-conversion. The move is meant to enhance liquidity and capital efficiency for users.
“WazirX has stopped deposits of USDC, USDP, and TUSD, and we will not support any new deposits. To enhance liquidity and capital efficiency for users, WazirX will implement BUSD Auto-Conversion for users’ existing balances of USDC, USDP, and TUSD stablecoins at a 1:1 ratio,” the announcement reads in part.
CoinGecko data suggests that WazirX has been trading minimal amounts of USDC with the only trading pair for the stablecoin being the USDC/USDT pair with daily trading volumes averaging $3,400. BUSD has two trading pairs on the platform, it trades against USDT with daily trading volumes of about $5,700 and the Indian Rupee at about $5,200 daily.
This delisting comes two weeks after global crypto exchange Binance announced its plans to delist USDC from being a tradable asset on its platform. Binance also announced that will auto-convert USDC, USDP and TUSD balances of its users into its BUSD stablecoin for liquidity purposes.
WazirX was recently in the news for having its accounts frozen as part of a money laundering investigation by Indian authorities. The incident prompted Binance to deny any equity ownership in Binance even though there was a 2019 announcement that suggested otherwise. Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao went on to comment that the $10 million deal was never completed. WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty however stated that he and other co-founders are owners of Zanmai Labs, which is licensed by Binance to operate INR-crypto pairs on WazirX. Shetty also stated that Binance operates WazirX’s crypto-to-crypto pairs and processes crypto withdrawal, adding, “WazirX as a product and a brand is owned by Binance.”