TrueUSD (TUSD), a stablecoin associated with Justin Sun, experienced a decline below $1, prompting reports that holders have exchanged hundreds of millions of dollars worth of TUSD for the rival stablecoin Tether (USDT). The deviation from the $1 peg occurred on January 15, with TUSD trading at $0.988, approximately 1.3% below its expected peg at the time of the report. The decoupling coincided with a substantial sell-off of TUSD on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance traders have reportedly sold over $339.2 million worth of TUSD within a 24-hour period, while buy orders amounted to $296.8 million, resulting in a net outflow of $42.3 million. Concerns about TrueUSD emerged on January 10 when reports suggested difficulties in publishing live proofs of its reserves, indicating potential undercollateralization. Protos reported API errors in TrueUSD's system, preventing the provision of USD values for its collateral assets.
Pseudonymous user Rho Rider highlighted the TUSD issue in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on December 16, pointing out potential arbitrage opportunities. TrueUSD had been consistently trading nearly 8% below its $0.92 peg on Poloniex, while maintaining a stable price around $0.99 on Binance. Users were reportedly unable to withdraw TUSD from Poloniex, hindering arbitrage trading, as indicated by messages in the Poloniex Telegram group. Techteryx, the company behind TrueUSD, declined to provide comments on the situation.
