Binance announced that it will stop supporting all Binance USD (BUSD) products December 15, 2023. This decision follows Paxos, the issuer of BUSD, halting the minting of new coins. Binance advised its users to withdraw or convert their existing BUSD on the exchange into other assets before December 15.

From December 31, the platform will disable withdrawals for BUSD, and existing balances will be automatically converted into First Digital USD (FDUSD) for certain users​​. This move is part of Binance’s larger strategy to wind down services for its native stablecoin.

The exchange had previously announced plans to gradually stop support for BUSD before February 2024, beginning with the cessation of borrowing and lending services for the stablecoin in October​​. The decision to halt support for BUSD came amidst regulatory scrutiny. In February, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission suggested that BUSD was an unregistered security, leading to a Wells notice issued to Paxos.

Furthermore, the New York Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos to halt the issuance of BUSD​​. This news follows a significant settlement between U.S. authorities and Binance, along with its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, in November.

They were required to pay $4.3 billion, and Zhao resigned as CEO as part of the settlement​​. Before August, BUSD was one of the largest stablecoins by market capitalization, reaching over $23.3 billion in November 2022. However, its market cap had fallen to approximately $1.7 billion at the time of the report, marking a decline of more than 92% in 12 month.

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