Major Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has delisted USD Coin (USDC) from its platform and converted the remaining balance into stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) under Binance backing.
WazirX officially announced on Monday that it has stopped sending USDC along with other stablecoins such as Pax Dollar (USDP) and TrueUSD (TUSD).
According to the announcement, the platform will instead offer BUSD stablecoins to enhance liquidity and capital efficiency for users. WazirX will implement automatic BUSD conversion with some of the remaining coins in the user account balance of USDC, USDP and TUSD at a ratio of 1:1 on October 5.
“Users will be able to view their USDC, USDP, and TUSD balances with account balances in BUSD when the transition is complete,” the exchange noted. “WazirX can modify the list of eligible stablecoins for automatic conversion.
” USDC, USDP and TUSD withdrawals will remain valid on WazirX through Friday. The platform then plans to remove those stablecoins from spot trading pairs on September 26.
According to data from CoinGecko, WazirX traded a negligible amount of USDC prior to the announcement. At the time of writing, the only USDC trading pair listed on WazirX has a daily volume of $3,400, competing with Tether (USDT).
In contrast, BUSD has two trading pairs on WazirX that are with stablecoin USDT and the Indian rupee, with daily trading volumes of $5,700 and $5,200, respectively.
Launched by Fintech company Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, USDC is the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization, after USDT. At the time of writing, USDC’s Market Cap amounts to $50 billion, down more than $17 billion from rival stablecoins USDT. BUSD is the third largest stablecoin by value, having a market cap of $20.6 billion.
This latest USDC delisting comes shortly after Binance announced plans to remove USDC from its platform. Similar to WazirX, Binance says it will automatically convert USDC, USDP, and TUSD balances into BUSD to expand liquidity.
In August, Binance denied any equity ownership in WazirX after the cryptocurrency exchange came under regulatory scrutiny. India’s Enforcement Directorate had earlier frozen more than $8.1 million in funds on WazirX as part of its Anti-Money Laundering investigation.
