Binance USD (BUSD) is a 1:1 USD-backed stable coin issued by Binance (in partnership with Paxos), Approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), The BUSD Monthly Audit Report can be viewed from the official website. Launched on 5 Sep 2019, BUSD aims to meld the stability of the dollar with blockchain technology. It is a digital fiat currency, issued as ERC-20 and supports BEP-2.
Why is BUSD important?
Based on the price stability, Stablecoin plays an important role in transactions, payments and settlement, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi).
What makes BUSD unique?
The BUSD ecosystem has grown exponentially in 2021. The stablecoin grew from a market capitalization of around US$1B at the start of 2021, to over US$14.6B at the end of 2021. This makes it the third largest stablecoin by market cap, behind Tether and USDC. This growth is largely due to more user adoption as wallets, platforms and services, DEXes and CEXes support BUSD.
Top wallets like Metamask, Trust Wallet, Trezor, Zapper and many more allow users to hold BUSD now. Platforms and services, like travel booking site Travala, payments gateways like Moonpay and Banxa, payment APIs like Wyre and multi-currency payment services like ivendPay and Paylot are now supporting BUSD too. While PancakeSwap is the top DEX in the BSC ecosystem, numerous other top DEXes also support BUSD, including: Uniswap, 1inch, Curve Finance, Ellipsis, MDEX, SushiSwap, 0x and many more. Users of centralised exchanges (CEXes) can use BUSD outside of Binance and Binance.US too, with top exchanges like FTX, Gate.io, WazirX, MEXC and more.
For users interested in yield farming and lending BUSD, it is available on centralised platforms like Binance, Blockfi and Celsius, among others. Top DeFi protocols like Venus, Aave, yearn.finance and more also allow users to earn yield on their BUSD. A complete overview of the BUSD ecosystem can be found here.
Is BUSD better than USDT?
USDC and BUSD have greater transparency than USDT. Moreover, they're comparable to USDT in terms of the exchange rate and blockchain. Thus, USDT is a better pick for people who prefer investing in a cryptocurrency with a higher volume and liquidity, while USDC and BUSD are preferable if you value transparency.
How secure is BUSD?
BUSD is 100% backed by U.S. dollars held in FDIC-insured U.S. banks. The reserves held for BUSD is either or both fiat cash in dedicated omnibus accounts at insured U.S. banks and/or U.S. Treasury bills.
