Crypto exchange Huobi converted $100 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) to Dai (DAI) as uncertainty spread in the stablecoin market this weekend, on-chain data shows.
According to blockchain tracking firm Lookonchain, Huobi made the large transaction early on Saturday morning.
“It appears that one of Huobi’s wallets also exchanged 100 million USDC for 100 million DAI.”
Lookonchain also spotted Tron (TRX) founder and crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who backs Huobi, taking out USDC from Ethereum-based lending platform Aave (AAVE) and trading it for DAI.
“Justin Sun withdrew 82 million USDC from Aave and exchanged for 82 million DAI.”
The movements come as the crypto markets faced another stablecoin scare.
USDC lost its peg to the US dollar following news that Circle, the stablecoin’s issuer, had $3.3 billion of its $40 billion reserves stuck in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a collapsed bank now under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). DAI also lost its peg as it is partially backed by USDC.
USDC traded as low as $0.87 while DAI retraced to a 24-hour low of $0.89.
The depegging triggered more than a $7 billion wipeout from USDC’s market cap, and prompted traders and whales to make big moves to mitigate risk or take advantage of arbitrage opportunities.
Lookonchain also spotted a whale going for a seven-figure profit by borrowing USDT, which did not lose its peg, to buy up USDC at a cheaper price in hopes of returning the loan after USDC already went back to its dollar-peg.
“Whale CZSamSun is buying USDC for arbitrage!
Deposited stETH and ETH to Aave and InstaDapp, borrowed USDT to buy USDC.
So far, has exchanged 28,577,700 USDT for 29,961,238 USDC.
Over $1.3M in profit once USDC is back to the peg!”
At time of writing, both USDC and DAI have not yet recovered their desired peg. Both stablecoins are trading at $0.94.