The cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, FTX is now hopping on the stocks bandwagon for its customers in the United States. As per a recent disclosure, the Chicago-based crypto exchange will begin testing stock trading functionality for a handful of U.S. users on Thursday. And what’s better is that the exchange planned to let its customers fund their accounts in the stablecoin USDC.
The President of FTX US, Brett Harrison said in a statement,
“Our goal is to offer a holistic investing service for our customers across all asset classes.”
Meanwhile, the CEO and founder of the FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried noted on his Twitter that only a “small subset of customers who registered for the waitlist will get access today”. He added,
“We’re planning to expand it to the whole platform over the next month.”
The waitlist for the same was opened in February 2022.
The announcement of a new product comes at a time when most investors are noting their portfolios dip. However, with this traditional offering, FTX might be trying to gain the trust of the customers back and make headway with general investors and not just crypto enthusiasts.
Keeping in mind the current losses and the state of the market, SBF noted that the US exchange will not charge commissions or trading fees. As noted by SBF,
While Harrison added that “Brokerage services are offered by our broker-dealer, FTX Capital Markets.”
He continued explaining,
“We’ve chosen to route customer orders directly to Nasdaq’s order router instead of routing to market makers and receiving payment for order flow.”
As the business matures in the United States, the service will be opened to customers throughout the country.
USDC: A wise choice for FTX?
The fall of the stablecoins Tether [USDT] and Terra’s UST caused a marketwide panic. Although USDT attained its peg to the US within a day, UST was still suffering. Amid this mix-up, one stablecoin emerged victorious – USDC.
While the market capitalization of UST and Tether was shedding, USDC was gaining. per reports, the current market cap of USDC sits at $5226 billion, near its all-time high of $53.6 billion seen in March 2022. It became the fourth-largest digital asset by market cap and is closing in on the dominance of Tether [USDT].
Recently, Circle behind the stablecoin USDC penned a blog stating “The Importance of Being Stable.” In the blog the Chief Strategy Officer, Dante Disparte noted,
“If you want to reference the dollar and create price parity fighting buyer’s and spender’s remorse, you actually need to hold high quality liquid assets (HQLAs in banking parlance) that are dollar denominated and inside the regulated banking system.”
As USDC finds more use cases and the dominance of USDT is challenged, this could be the time for the stablecoin to show its metal. Even though fortunes can quickly reverse, USDC appears to lead the new age of stablecoin assets.