Stablecoin Wars: Poloniex Extends Fee-Free USDC Trading

As we previously reported, Circle’s Poloniex participation in the stablecoin wars is evident in their decision to not charge fees on use of USDC on their platform. For the month of November, trades in USDC were not charged any fees at all. According to an e-mail blast from Poloniex, this amounted to more than $500,000 in trading fees not accrued by them.

Now they’ve decided to extend the fee holiday through December on BTC/USDC, a pair that is undoubtedly hot given the price situation with Bitcoin. Some are trying to exit and some are trying to enter, and a newfound easy way to do this is to acquire stablecoins with fiat and then use them on various exchanges, Poloniex and USDC being just one of many options.

As fees go, Binance remains the most competitive, with its option to pay fees using its native BNB token, a token that was issued and sold to pay for its launch and initial operating costs. Companies like Poloniex have been scrambling to find ways to compete with the massive volumes and options on Binance. In a similar way that some argue that Bitcoin can simply integrate any interesting features that altcoins ever dream up, Binance has been able to simply list any coins that other exchanges are making a market for, including Paxos Standard, which was recently added as part of a push to create a unified stablecoins market at Binance. The tokenized nature of USDC means there’s little that can prevent Binance from also adding it in the future.

In any case, the lack of fees in USDC contrasts starkly with recent moves by Tether, which, following the decision by Bitfinex to establish stablecoin neutrality, was forced to offer direct redemption of USDT. Such redemption will cost fees so exorbitant that the author is wondering whether Tether is intentionally trying to put themselves out of business when upstarts like Circle and itBit are offering a lack of fees for conversion, and Circle is going the extra mile here by offering a total 60-day window of essentially free trading with USDC.

Those looking to make an entry into crypto have a good opportunity in Paxos Standard and USDC, which make it relatively easy for those with traditional bank accounts and means to acquire crypto tokens which can then be traded on various cryptocurrency exchanges.

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