Biggest USDC burn on record just occurred, net redemptions since Friday reach $4.5 billion
Circle’s stablecoin continues to struggle to win back confidence, and the biggest redemption on record just occurred as $723.5 million was sent to a null address and burnt, according to data via Arkham.
More than $6.2 billion USDC has been redeemed since Friday, with around $1.66 billion minted — bringing net redemptions to a little over $4.5 billion.
Fears over the reserves backing USDC becoming stuck in failed U.S. regional banks initially spurred redemptions on Thursday and Friday before they were halted over the weekend.
U.S. federal bank regulators then guaranteed the full return of Silicon Valley and Signature Bank customer deposits, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said operations would resume on Monday. They did, as did a steady stream of redemptions.
“Despite Circle turning on redemptions and providing assurance that redemptions will be met with reserves, it seems like USDC holders are still nervous about the current environment,” said Steven Zhang, director of research at The Block Research.
“Given Circle holds its cash reserves with many other banks, if those banks experience a bank run like the one we saw with Silicon Valley Bank, it could lead to USDC de-pegging again,” Zhang said, adding it “might not be worth the risk relative to the limited rewards currently in crypto.”
