Users withdrew over $12.3 billion in stablecoins from crypto exchanges in two days. Approximately the same amount was transferred back to other exchanges. These numbers are a record for the sector since this May.
Liquidity problems experienced by the crypto exchange FTX led to users actively withdrawing stablecoins from trading platforms. According to CryptoQuant, about 5.3 billion stablecoins were withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges on Wednesday, November 9, and that figure rose to 7 billion on Thursday, November 10.
Users made more than 100,000 withdrawal transactions over the previous two days. However, 40% of them were made on Binance and none on FTX, as the exchange has blocked the fund withdrawal due to liquidity issues.
It’s worth noting that stablecoin deposits to crypto exchanges during these two days were also the highest since this May. On November 9 and 10, users deposited more than $12 billion in stablecoins to accounts of various trading platforms. Around 45% came to Binance’s accounts, whose balance in stablecoins has sharply risen recently. Since November 6, the number of stablecoins in Binance’s accounts has increased by 890%, with a 70% increase during the last 24 hours.
FTX’s crisis prompted users to change exchanges instead of actively fleeing the market, withdrawing stablecoins. This may be due to news that major crypto exchanges have expressed their willingness to undergo a public audit to ensure “full transparency” of their reserves.
Thus, according to data from Nansen, as of 10:00 a.m. (GMT+2) on November 11, the most stablecoins were withdrawn from OKX in the last week — $496 million, accounting for about one-fifth of the exchange’s total stablecoin balance. Curve Finance lost $456 million in stablecoins during the week, about one-third of the site’s total balance. Users withdrew 194 million stablecoins from FTX’s accounts over the week, which amounted to about 70% of the exchange’s reserves. At the same time, accounts of Binance, whose CEO gently nudged FTX to worsen the liquidity crunch, gained $171 million in stablecoins during the last week. The total balance in stablecoins now stands at $26.6 billion. However, the most significant inflow of funds in stablecoins is observed on Crypto.com — $235 million, accounting for about a third of the site’s original balance.
Rumors about the insolvency of FTX and the subsequent problems with fund withdrawals from the website led to the instability of the entire crypto market. News about Binance’s plans to help FTX survive the crisis and its further cancellation of these plans crushed the market cap by more than $100 billion in 24 hours.
