Hong Kong-based first digital's $3B stablecoin arrives to Sui network in DeFi push

Hong Kong-based stablecoins issuer First Digital Trust said Wednesday that it is expanding its $3 billion dollar-pegged FDUSD token to the Sui (SUI) blockchain after being available of Ethereum (ETH) and BNB Chain (BNB).

The expansion is part of First Digital's effort to boost FDUSD usage among decentralized finance (DeFi) users, CEO Vincent Chok said in an interview with CoinDesk.

FDUSD, issued under Hong Kong's digital asset rules and backed by U.S. Treasury bills and bank deposits to keep its price anchored to $1, quickly became the fourth-largest stablecoin behind Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC and MakerDAO's DAI, amassing $3.3 billion market capitalization since its launch last year.

The token has largely benefitted from crypto exchange giant Binance's trading promotion following the shutdown of the Paxos-issued Binance USD stablecoin, ordered by New York state regulators. FDUSD's trading volume surpassed $10 billion over the past 24 hours, with more than 90% of that coming from bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and USDT spot trading pairs on Binance, according to CoinGecko data.

"Sui is an up-and-coming network and very supportive of the DeFi space," Chok said in the interview. "Their growth within a year is amazing as well, so we want to grow together as a new stablecoin."

Sui, created by the developer team that led Meta's shuttered Diem crypto project, has seen a rapid growth in DeFi activity recently. The network's total value locked (TVL), a key DeFi metric showing the combined worth of assets on a protocol or blockchain, has mushroomed to around $700 million from $100 million six months ago, DefiLlama data shows.

The expansion to Sui also makes FDUSD the first top stablecoin natively issued on the Sui network. Sui hosts $340 million worth of USDC and USDT stablecoins, per DefiLlama, but users had to use bridges to transfer tokens from other blockchain rails, which incurs fees and risks.

"This integration will have a profound impact on the Sui community, fueling enhanced liquidity, expanding the network's utility, and unlocking new possibilities for builders and users," Greg Siourounis, managing director of ecosystem development organization Sui Foundation, said in an emailed statement.