The USDC stablecoin saga continues as leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase attempts to ease the conversion process of USDT holders looking to convert their USDT to USDC. The onlooker brand strategic move comes not long after Binance halted all of the USDC trading pairs on its platform.
The war between Stablecoins and exchanges drags on
In a blog post published on Coinbase’s website, dated 8th December, Coinbase highlights its support for USDC with a compelling blog title that reads “Switch to the trusted and reputable digital dollar: USDC.”
The blog post essentially goes over USDC’s admirable quality, highlighting a “high-quality reserve” as one of its upsides. Keep in mind that USDT has, in the past, been critiqued for lack of transparency on its reserve. USDT has also been accused of lying about its equal backing to the U.S. dollar.
The allegations put stablecoins like USDC in a better position for adoption amongst stablecoin users and holders. Pitching USDC to users as the most reputable stablecoin in the market, Coinbase scraps out conversion fees for retail users.
Excerpts of the blog post reads;
“However, the events of the past few weeks have put some stablecoins to the test and we’ve seen a flight to safety. We believe that USD Coin (USDC) is a trusted and reputable stablecoin, so we’re making it more frictionless to switch: starting today we’re waiving fees for global retail customers to convert USDT to USDC.“
The move could cause trading volume for USDC to surge on Coinbase, especially considering that USDT traded below $1 for a large part of November.
Explaining how the conversion structure is patterned, Coinbase added that there will be “No commission fee or spread for USDT to USDC conversions on Coinbase Simple Trade in eligible regions, until further notice. Conversion rate is determined at trade execution, and is subject to market volatility. Not investment advice. Standard fees apply on Coinbase Advanced Trade, Prime, and Exchange.“
Recall that Binance, another leading exchange, had delisted three stablecoins back in September. USDP, TUSD, and USDC training pairs were removed from the platform. On the 29th of September, Binance concluded the conversion of the aforementioned stablecoins to BUSD.
