USDD Stumbles and De-Pegs Just Months After Launch

TRON’s newly launched stablecoin (USDD) may be running into trouble just months after launch.

USDD is facing its sternest test yet after the US-pegged stablecoin fell to just $0.9807 this morning at 07:52 UTC. At the time of press, USDD has recovered slightly, but is still one cent short of the dollar, sitting at $0.9902.

In the last 24 hours Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen 13.5% to $23,763.55, while Ethereum (ETC) has declined more sharply by 18.0% to $1,197.16.

Blue Monday

The crypto market remains jittery this Monday after the lending platform Celsius announced it was suspending all customer withdrawals. The news has added to prevailing negative sentiments in the market following the collapse of Terra in May. 

The de-pegging of USDD has only added to the increasing sense of fear factor in crypto. In response Tron’s CEO Justin Sun explained that the Tron DAO which manages USDD is “actively buying crypto… We will add reserve into [the] public address once [the] market is stable. Furthermore, #USDD return rate will refresh everyday.”

In the past hour Sun and TronDAO have announced a further purchase of 650 million USDC bringing their total to $2.5 billion.

At launch, TRON CEO Justin Sun promised to over-collateralize USDD to the tune of $10 billion dollars. As yet, TRON’s total reserves in all currencies remain short of that goal. 

Collateral is not the only layer of defense that the TRON CEO has lauded. Sun also promised that the “proper algorithms” that Tron employed would help to ensure the peg remained stable “regardless of market volatility.”

Today those strategies have been put to the test, and seem at least somewhat wanting.

USDD on a wobbly peg

Despite the loosening of USDD’s wobbly US-dollar peg, the stablecoin remains overcollateralized by 277.54% according to information on the stablecoin’s homepage.

USDD is collateralized by TRON (TRX), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Bitcoin reserves. 

“We want to have USDD to be overcollateralized, which I think will make market participants more comfortable about using us in the future,” said Sun earlier this month,

For Terra customers, much of Sun’s script may sound eerily familiar. Both the $10 billion dollar reserve and the breezy confidence of its leadership are strongly reminiscent of Terra before the fall.

In March Do Kwon announced that Terra would purchase $10 billion of BTC to collateralize UST. The plan failed.

Under Sun’s stewardship, TRON has proved, over a number of years, that anything other crypto projects can invent or innovate, Sun’s Tron can just as easily emulate. 

In Terra and Do Kwon, Justin Sun should have found two examples he will not wish to copy with such haste.