Tether’s stablecoin, USDT, has encountered a depegging issue on Curve Finance’s 3Pool, a prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for stablecoin trading. The imbalance within the Curve 3Pool has caused USDT to deviate slightly from its pegged value, leading to concerns within the crypto market.
Imbalance in Curve 3Pool
The Curve 3Pool is designed to maintain a balanced distribution of stablecoins, with each stablecoin representing approximately 33.33% of the pool’s total value. However, recent data reveals that USDT’s share in the pool has surged to over 70%, surpassing the intended allocation. This imbalance indicates that traders are actively selling USDT in exchange for other stablecoins like DAI or USDC, leading to USDT’s depegging to a value slightly below $1. Specifically, USDT has depegged to $0.997.
Historical Instances of Imbalance and Volatility: The current imbalance within the Curve 3Pool is not an isolated incident. In the past, similar situations occurred, impacting the stability of USDT. For instance, in March, the pool experienced an imbalance when USDC and DAI’s share exceeded 45% each. Another imbalance occurred in November, triggered by the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. Additionally, the Terra ecosystem crash in May 2022 led to a temporary loss of peg for USDT and increased volatility.
Notably, the depegging issue with USDT creates opportunities for arbitrage in the market. While occasional price discrepancies have been observed with USDT in the past, prolonged depegging from its intended value is a new development. Traders can potentially exploit the price difference between USDT and other stablecoins, taking advantage of the temporary market inefficiency.
Also Read: Tether Commits to Bitcoin Investment, Allocating 15% of Net Profits
In summary, the depegging incident of Tether’s USDT on Curve 3Pool has raised concerns within the crypto market. The imbalance within the pool has caused USDT to deviate slightly from its intended value. Previous instances of imbalance and volatility have further highlighted the challenges associated with maintaining stablecoin pegs.
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