Summary:
- On Thursday, Crypto’s largest stablecoin USDT from Tether slightly depegged as a token imbalance rocked Curve’s popular 3pool.
- Tether balances on Curve’s stablecoin pool peaked at 76% at press time as traders sold millions of USDT for DAI and USDC.
- “We are ready to redeem any amount” CTO Paolo Ardoino tweeted saying that edgy markets make easy prey for attackers.
Stablecoin balances on Curve’s 3pool show that traders are opting out of Tether’s USDT as crypto’s largest stablecoin by a wide margin depegged during trading hours on Thursday.
Analysis from on-chain insight outfit Peckshield showed that USDT made up over 76% of 3pool, a stablecoin pool offered by Curve Finance that features USDT, Maker’s DAI, and Circle’s USDC.
The sharp balance change means that traders are swapping millions of USDT for DAI and USDC amid the slight depeg. The development could also provide an opportunity for arbitrage traders looking to profit from another depeg event in the crypto market.
Curve’s 3pool showed USDT balances of over $315 million while DAI and USDC balances slipped below $50 million as traders seemingly dumped their Tether. A similar pattern was observed last summer during Terra’s meteoric collapse and again when Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange ran into bankruptcy.
At press time, USDT’s depeg had recovered back to $0.9975. USDT’s market cap was above $83 billion on Thursday, by far the largest stablecoin market cap in crypto per CMC data.
Tether’s CTO – Let Them Come
Following the news, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino tweeted that the digital payment giant is ready to redeem any amount amid concerns about the stablecoin’s market health.
Markets are edgy in these days, so it’s easy for attackers to capitalize on this general sentiment. But at Tether we’re ready as always. Let them come. We’re ready to redeem any amount.