On Thursday, August 3rd, crypto exchange Binance announced the launch of new trading pairs for Bitcoin and Ether with the First Digital USD (FDUSD) stablecoin. The BTC/FDUSD and ETH/FDUSD pairs will be available for spot and margin trading with zero maker fees.
The calculation of VIP tier volume and the Liquidity Providers programs will exclude trading volume for BTC/FDUSD on both spot and margin markets. This will improve the trading experience for these pairs.
Binance Continues to Move Forward with Its Operations
According to the announcement, starting at 08:00 UTC on August 4th, Binance’s Zero-Fee Bitcoin Trading Program will allow users to trade BTC/FDUSD on both spot and margin markets with no maker or taker fees. Additionally, ETH/FDUSD trades will have zero maker fees, while standard taker fees based on the user’s VIP level will still apply.
The listing of the new stablecoin, First Digital USD (FDUSD), on Binance, was originally scheduled for July 26, 2023, at 8:00 am UTC. However, due to technical issues experienced by the liquidity providers for FDUSD pairs, the listing was postponed until 2:00 pm UTC on the same day.
In March, Binance ended its zero-fee Bitcoin trading program and Binance USD zero-maker fee promotion. Instead, the exchange shifted to using the lesser-known TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin in place of BUSD.
Additionally, Tether was removed from the zero-fee program. These changes resulted in a significant decrease in Binance’s market share and trading volumes, with a drop of over 50%. As a result, the prices of cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH faced downward pressure following the changes.
First Digital USD, a stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar, was launched on June 1st by the Hong Kong-based custodian and trust company First Digital.
Despite its current market cap of $257 million is relatively low compared to other stablecoins such as USDT, TUSD, BUSD, and TerraClassicUSD (USTC), the demand for FDUSD from Binance could lead to an increase in its market cap through the minting of new FDUSD. However, at present, its impact on the crypto market is limited.
