- IOTA’s price increases by 1.3% even after being removed from Binance.
- Binance faces regulatory heat, leading to the delisting of several tokens, including its own stablecoin, BUSD.
The Unwavering Fortitude of IOTA
Against the backdrop of a volatile cryptocurrency landscape, IOTA demonstrates an almost paradoxical resilience. This altcoin not only survived but thrived after Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, chose to delist it. What makes this even more astonishing is that the price of IOTA increased by 1.3% in the past 24 hours, defying the conventional wisdom that a coin’s value is largely tethered to its presence on major exchanges.
Regulatory Tug-of-War Influences Binance’s Decision
Binance’s move to delist a cadre of tokens from its platform is precipitated by increasing scrutiny from regulatory bodies. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently accused Paxos Trust Company of issuing BUSD (Binance USD) without requisite registration, classifying it as an unregistered security. This has prompted Paxos to halt the issuance of new BUSD tokens, creating an air of uncertainty around the stablecoin and triggering Binance to remove it from its offerings.
Impact on the Altcoin Ecosystem
The ripple effects of Binance’s actions are not confined to IOTA. Other altcoins like ANKR, CVC, EPX, HIVE, KLAY, LRC, MBL, MTL, and UMA were also expunged from Binance’s platform. However, these tokens, like IOTA, have displayed remarkable resilience. ANKR, for example, only saw a modest 3.5% decline in its price and a 37.5% drop in transaction volume — arguably a tepid reaction considering the magnitude of being delisted from a major exchange.
A Web of Challenges for Binance
This episode is but a chapter in Binance’s ongoing saga of challenges. The exchange has lately lost trading licenses in several European Union countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, and Cyprus. It has also been compelled to suspend USD transactions, trade pairs, and Over-The-Counter (OTC) trades owing to legal complications with both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Shifting Landscape for Binance’s Native Tokens
The ramifications extend to Binance’s own ecosystem of tokens. In addition to delisting its stablecoin BUSD, Binance will also suspend trading pairs related to its native token, Binance Coin (BNB), starting this month. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, expressed his concerns regarding the current turbulence in the stablecoin market, particularly citing Tether’s USDT, hinting at a more convoluted future for stablecoins.
