Stablecoin Economy Reaches 20-Month Low as BUSD Redemptions Surpass 10 Billion Tokens in 3 Months

Three months have passed since Paxos made the decision to cease the production of new BUSD tokens, complying with the directive issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Since February 13, 2023, 10.62 billion BUSD tokens have been redeemed thus far. Within the span of the last 30 days, slightly more than one billion BUSD stablecoins have been withdrawn from circulation.

BUSD Redemptions Exceed 10 Billion Tokens Since NYDFS Announcement

Despite tether (USDT) approaching its all-time high in terms of market capitalization, the stablecoin economy is currently experiencing its lowest value range since September 2021. A decent-sized fraction of the stablecoin economy’s decline can be attributed to the redemption of BUSD tokens. Three months ago, or 107 days to be precise, Paxos made an announcement in compliance with the directives from the NYDFS, stating that they would cease the production of BUSD tokens.

According to archived data from that day, approximately 15.87 billion BUSD stablecoins were circulating. The figure marked a decline of 6.23 billion BUSD from the total of 22.10 billion BUSD in circulation on December 11, 2022. Following the announcement by the NYDFS, the rate at which BUSD was diminishing accelerated significantly, falling below the 10 billion mark on March 2, 2023. Although the pace of reduction has eased since then, data indicates that around 10.62 billion BUSD has been withdrawn since the initial announcement.

10 BUSD Wallets Hold More Than 92% of the Stablecoin’s Supply

Over the past 30 days, the statistics reveal that a significant 15.4% of the BUSD supply has been erased, making it the stablecoin with the highest 30-day redemption rate among the top ten. Presently, the circulating supply of BUSD stands at 5.25 billion. However, it is important to note that a majority of the BUSD in circulation is concentrated in a few entities. To be precise, there are 168,742 unique addresses that hold BUSD, but the top ten addresses alone account for 92.24% of the BUSD supply issued on the Ethereum blockchain.

Data from Nansen.ai reveals that the top four wallets holding BUSD are under the control of Binance, with 3.124 billion BUSD held by the exchange. Following closely behind is the Paxos Treasury wallet, ranking as the fifth largest BUSD wallet with a balance of 20.6 million BUSD. It is worth noting that the redemption trend observed over the past 107 days did not solely affect the Paxos-issued stablecoin BUSD. Other dollar-pegged tokens such as USDC, DAI, and GUSD also experienced declines in their respective supplies.

USDC, for instance, encountered a depegging incident in March, while ccdata.io research indicates that the May 2023 trade volumes of stablecoins have plummeted by over 40% — to the lowest monthly volume recorded since December 2022. According to the ccdata.io study, the stablecoin economy has endured a continuous decline for 14 consecutive months since achieving its current valuation of $130 billion.

Despite losing a substantial 10.62 billion tokens in the past three months, BUSD maintains its position as the third largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization. However, if an additional 622 million tokens are redeemed, DAI will surpass BUSD and claim the third position.

What are your thoughts about BUSD redeeming more than 10 billion coins over the past three months? Share your insights and opinions in the comments section below.