India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX followed Binance in delisting 3 stablecoins, and “auto-converting user balances to USD.” WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, announced today that it will delist USD Coin, Pax Dollar, and TrueUSD (TUSD) and would convert existing balances on these stablecoins to BUSD, the stablecoin created by Binance.
In an announcement Monday, WazirX stated that it had stopped USDC, USDP and TUSD deposits and would not accept new deposits. WazirX will offer BUSD Auto Conversion to users’ USDC, USDP and TUSD stablecoin balances in an 1:1 ratio. This is to increase liquidity and capital efficiency.
Spot markets of all three stablecoin will be delisted
The exchange stated that withdrawals of USDC and USDP will be frozen after 5 PM IST on September 23rd. It will then delist spot market pairs for all three stablecoins in September 26.
WazirX added that the auto-conversion of existing USDC, USDP and TUSD balances will be complete “on or before” 5 October.
Today’s announcement comes two weeks following a similar move made by Binance. Binance used similar language in its announcement delist USDC and two other stablecoins. The exchange stated that the move was intended to increase liquidity and capital efficiency for users and reserved the right “to amend the list of stablecoins which are eligible for auto-conversion.”
It also occurs in the wake Binance denigrating its ownership of WazirX, despite declaring the exact opposite in 2019.
Binance in two minds of publicly buying out WazirX
Changpeng Zhao (founder of Binance) took to Twitter at the beginning of August to comment on the 2019 announcement Binance’s acquisition WazirX for a reported value of up to \$10 Million. He stated that “this transaction wasn’t completed.”
Nischal Shetty, WazirX’s co-founder, lashed out at Zhao’s comments. He stated that he and his co-founders own Zanmai Labs which has a Binance license to operate INR crypto pairs on WazirX.
Shetty claims that Binance operates WazirX’s crypto to-crypto pairs and processes crypto withdraw. Binance also owns WazirX as both a product or a brand.
Decrypt contacted both Binance, and WazirX but had not heard back by the time this article was published.
Zhao denied the deal in reports by the Enforcement Directorate, India’s chief financial enforcement agent. It was after Zhao accused WazirX for violating currency exchange regulations and freezing assets worth $8.14 million.
Last week, WazirX stated that its bank account were not frozen following “active cooperation” with the ED via active Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. These checks saw 16 fintech companies using WazirX to transfer crypto assets to “unknown foreign accounts,” and resulted in the accounts being blocked.
