The problem with centralized stablecoins? Their lack of transparency. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but as long as collateralization remains offchain, expect the unexpected — depegs will happen. Speaking of the unexpected, how about that whipsaw yesterday?

Dollar plunges alongside BTC and equities:

The US Dollar Index (DXY) plunged 2.8% on the heels of President Trump’s “Liberation Day,” its worst one-day drop since the great financial crisis of 2008/2009.

The bulls have been thoroughly routed by the selloff which followed Trump’s announcement of sweeping new tariffs: a 10% blanket levy on all US imports, with higher rates — often much higher — on select countries. Economic theory suggests tariffs should strengthen the dollar by reducing imports and improving the trade balance. But markets interpreted the move as destabilizing.

“The problem is that Trump’s tariffs have been sudden and erratic…they aren’t based on any calculation that makes economic sense,” The Wall Street Journal wrote.

Crypto markets echoed that mood. Normally, dollar weakness is a tailwind for bitcoin and risk assets — but this time, everything fell. Bitcoin is down about 8%, since Trump’s tariff chart came out in the White House Rose Garden. US equities are sharply lower Thursday and volatility has surged.

“Bitcoin dropping [8%] isn't just a technical move — it shows how investors are rethinking risk,” said Falcon Finance’s Andrei Grachev. “Some trading signals suggest trouble ahead, but we're seeing investors protecting themselves rather than panic-selling like in past years.”

I don’t know about that — it looks like panic time to me. Only with reason.

— Macauley Peterson

Ship Fast. Show Up. Build Loud.

Permissionless IV is for the ones building quietly, releasing early, and moving fast.
Not “thought leaders.” Not influencers.

Founders with product. Devs with commits. Teams with traction.

🎤 Speaker apps are open. Show what you’re building.
💻 Hackathon = $100K+ in bounties.
👀 We cover your ticket if you're shipping.

📅 June 22–26 | Brooklyn, NY

Justin Sun comments lead to FDUSD depeg

FDUSD, the sixth-largest stablecoin (market cap $2.5 billion) saw a significant depeg yesterday morning to $0.91. The peg has since recovered, though FDUSD suffered a market cap loss of about $200m.

The cause? The tweets of Tron founder Justin Sun.

Sun blasted First Digital, the issuer of FUSD, in a tweet alleging that the Hong Kong-based firm was “effectively insolvent and unable to fulfill client fund redemptions” for its stablecoin.

Sun’s tweet included a link to a CoinDesk article detailing Techteryx’s lawsuit against First Digital’s CEO Vincent Chok for alleged mismanagement of the former’s reserves. Sun had previously been accused of influencing CoinDesk’s editorial decisions, which resulted in the removal of key editorial staff.

Techteryx is the issuer of the TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin, and had previously established First Digital as a fiduciary to manage its reserves.

The lawsuit alleges First Digital had misappropriated $456m of Techteryx’s monies into “unauthorized trade finance loans.”

First Digital immediately denounced Sun’s allegations as a “smear campaign,” claiming that FDUSD was "completely solvent" and that the company would "pursue legal action to protect its rights and reputation.” 

Sun doubled down in a second tweet an hour later, asserting that his claims regarding FDT’s insolvency was “a factual statement.”

According to First Digital’s latest February 2025 monthly reserve report, the company’s reserves at the time totaled $2,051,348,188 — backing a total issued supply of $2,041,924,819 FDUSD.

Like most centralized stablecoins, First Digital’s collateral backing consisted of primarily US Treasury bills, overnight fixed deposits and US dollars.

While attestation reports are helpful, there is still an element level of trust and counterparty risk inherent to stablecoins, Cork Protocol co-founder Rob Schmitt told Blockworks.

“If stablecoins are to underpin the global financial system, there will be a clear demand to hedge against these risks, without which there could be a lot of contagion potentially.”

“It’s not so different from what happened with USDC’s depeg during the Silicon Valley Bank chaos. There wasn't fraud as claimed, but there was spillover of collateral damage from counterparty risk which is inherent to any stablecoin design.”

FDUSD is largely known for being a stablecoin used on the Binance exchange, acting as a replacement for Binance’s BUSD stablecoin.

BUSD’s issuer, Paxos, was ordered by the New York Department of Financial Services to shut down the stablecoin in February 2023.

Arkham data shows that Binance holds the large majority (95%) of the FDUSD supply.

In response to the debacle, Aave has frozen FDUSD depositing and borrowing on its BNB Chain deployment.

— Donovan Choy

Fluid blends lending and trading

Fluid is a new DeFi protocol that integrates lending and trading through a unified liquidity layer. Built by the Instadapp team, Fluid enables LPs to deploy the same collateral simultaneously across lending and AMM strategies via its smart collateral and smart debt systems. This design supports leveraged, hedged and delta-neutral positions without the need for additional capital.

The protocol has quickly gained traction: Since launching in late 2024, Fluid DEX has captured nearly 30% market share relative to Uniswap and now holds 4% of TVL among major lenders like Aave and Kamino. Borrowers benefit from low liquidation penalties (0.1%), and lenders earn both trading fees and interest by routing assets into AMM pools.

Fluid is preparing to launch DEX v2 in the coming weeks, which will introduce permissionless pool creation and concentrated liquidity. Plans for a fee switch are also underway, with the potential to raise protocol revenue from $6.5m to $40m+ annually. With expansion to Base, and likely a Solana deployment on the horizon, Fluid’s unified architecture could drive further adoption across both DEX and lending verticals.

A full breakdown, including revenue scenarios and valuation analysis, is available here by Blockworks Research’s Daniel Shapiro.