Binance restarted withdrawals of stablecoin USDC Tuesday (Dec. 13) after an hours-long pause.
The cryptocurrency exchange tweeted “$USDC withdrawals are back online. Thank you for your patience.”
$USDC withdrawals are back online. Thank you for your patience.
— Binance (@binance) December 13, 2022
This implies the completion of a token swap involving USDC — with one crypto being swapped for another without the use of fiat currencies — Seeking Alpha reported Tuesday.
As PYMNTS reported earlier Tuesday, Binance had paused withdrawals of USDC as it conducted the token swap.
“On USDC, we have seen an increase in withdrawals,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted Tuesday morning. “However, the channel to swap from PAX/BUSD to USDC requires going through a bank in NY in USD. The banks are not open for another few hours.”
On USDC, we have seen an increase in withdrawals. However, the channel to swap from PAX/BUSD to USDC requires going through a bank in NY in USD. The banks are not open for another few hours. We expect the situation will be restored when the banks open. 1/2
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) December 13, 2022
PAX/BUSD are two other digital tokens: Paxos Standard and Binance USD.
Zhao added in the tweet that these are “1:1 conversions, no margins or leverage involved.” He said Binance will eventually try to establish more fluid swap channels, and said users were free to withdraw any other stablecoins.
As PYMNTS reported later Tuesday, stablecoins have been described as being both the glue linking crypto assets to real-world values, as well as the oil that allows marketplace engines to easily exchange funds. To say they are critical to the entire crypto industry would be an understatement.
Coincidentally, rival exchange Coinbase had a hand in founding USDC. Binance said back in September that it would automatically convert user balances and new deposits of USDC and two other stablecoins into its own internally developed stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD).
The pause and restarting of withdrawals of USDC on the exchange came on the same day that the firm opened its payments system Binance Pay to its American customers.
This feature, which lets users send money via mobile app, has been available to Binance users outside the U.S. since last year.
“Pay eliminates the complexities of transferring crypto to contacts as users no longer need to enter a complex deposit or withdrawal address, pay gas fees, or wait an unspecified amount of time for transactions to successfully settle,” the firm said in the Tuesday press release.
Binance Pay lets users send, request and receive nearly 150 different cryptocurrencies from other users, allowing for instant, no-cost crypto transfers.
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