Justin Sun’s stablecoin TUSD curiously grows amid market meltdown
Almost all stablecoins have seen their market caps dramatically reduced since the collapse of the Do Kwon-founded Ponzi scheme Terra/Luna in May and June of last year. Attestations are also becoming difficult to come by as auditors abandon the crypto industry en masse.
BUSD, or Binance USD, a stablecoin issued by Paxos, has been hit particularly hard — its market cap has crumbled from $22 billion to $10 billion over the last three months. What’s peculiar, however, is the upward momentum of the Justin Sun-controlled stablecoin TUSD which has seen its market cap balloon from $750 million in December to nearly $1.2 billion today. This is despite it no longer being able to get regular attestations from Armanino, its auditor.
When it comes to failing stablecoins, Frax and BUSD have been leading the charge, shedding 65% and 60% of their market caps respectively. Even the largest issuers, such as Tether and USDC (the stablecoin operated by Circle) have seen their market caps fall 15-25% since peaking in 2022.
Only Sun-owned and controlled stablecoins, such as USDJ and USDD, have seen their market caps remain untouched, with seemingly no redemptions happening at all.
The total market cap for stablecoins has gone from about $200 billion in May of 2022 to $130 billion today, a 35% decrease.
No audit no cry
Meanwhile, Armanino, the auditor of choice for FTX and a slew of other crypto companies, has failed to provide an attestation for TUSD since December of 2022. Real-time reserve attestations aren’t being Armanino-branded, either. In an odd twist, however, up-to-date attestations for TAUD, TCAD, and TGBP are available and certified by Armanino.
The stablecoin issuer was purchased by an Asian conglomerate branded as Techteryx, supposedly tied to Justin Sun, in April of 2021.
Read more: Justin Sun strengthens ties to Tether and Hong Kong
TrustToken has removed Armanino branding from its website. Armanino announced that it would no longer be offering services to crypto companies after the fallout from the collapse of FTX, but this hasn’t stopped the team formerly in charge of the firm’s cryptocurrency arm from going off and starting their own auditing firm.
This new company will be focused on cryptocurrency companies (according to CoinDesk reporting). We wish them luck taking on TUSD and the rest of Justin Sun’s stablecoins.
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