What Was BUSD (Binance USD)? What Happened and What Replaced It

Status (checked September 2026): BUSD is no longer issued. Paxos stopped minting new BUSD in February 2023 after an order from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and Binance ended support for BUSD in December 2023. Paxos says its customers can still redeem BUSD for US dollars.

BUSD, short for Binance USD, was a stablecoin: a crypto token designed to stay worth one US dollar. It carried the name of Binance, a large crypto exchange, but a separate company, Paxos, issued it and held the dollars behind it. If stablecoins are new to you, start with our guide to what a stablecoin is and how it works.

BUSD is no longer issued, and most platforms have stopped supporting it. If you are looking for a dollar stablecoin that is still issued, see the USDC price and payment options.

What was BUSD?

BUSD was a US dollar stablecoin that Paxos Trust Company created in partnership with Binance. The two companies announced it on September 4, 2019, and said NYDFS, New York’s financial regulator, had approved it.

The partnership split the work. Paxos issued the tokens, held the dollar reserves and let its customers buy and redeem BUSD at 1:1. Binance listed BUSD for trading. Paxos-issued BUSD ran on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.

Paxos said every BUSD it issued was backed 1:1 by US dollar reserves held in bankruptcy-remote accounts. Most cryptocurrencies have no such reserves (see what backs cryptocurrency), and their prices move for many reasons, as explained in how bitcoin’s price is determined. Stablecoins were built to avoid that volatility.

There was also a second token with a similar name. Binance-Peg BUSD was a version that Binance created on other blockchains, such as BNB Smart Chain. NYDFS has said that Paxos does not issue Binance-Peg BUSD and that NYDFS has not authorized it on any blockchain. So the redemption promise from Paxos covers Paxos-issued BUSD, not Binance-Peg BUSD.

Why did Paxos stop issuing BUSD?

Paxos stopped because NYDFS ordered it to. NYDFS said it acted because of several unresolved issues related to how Paxos oversaw its relationship with Binance.

On February 13, 2023, Paxos announced that it would end its BUSD relationship with Binance and stop issuing new BUSD from February 21, 2023. It said existing BUSD would stay fully backed and redeemable for at least a year. Paxos later reported that more than $7.9 billion of BUSD, nearly half of the supply, was redeemed in the first 32 days, and that BUSD did not lose its dollar peg for any sustained period in that time. Past performance does not predict future results.

The regulator’s review went on after the wind-down. In August 2025, NYDFS announced that Paxos would pay a $26.5 million penalty and invest another $22 million in its compliance program. NYDFS found that Paxos had not done enough due diligence on Binance and that its anti-money laundering program had systemic failures.

What happened to BUSD, step by step?

BUSD went from launch to wind-down in under four years. These are the key dates:

Can I still redeem or use BUSD?

Yes, if you hold Paxos-issued BUSD and can use a Paxos account. As of September 2026, Paxos says it no longer mints BUSD but lets customers redeem BUSD for US dollars or convert it to Pax Dollar (USDP), another Paxos stablecoin.

NYDFS says Paxos must redeem Paxos-issued BUSD at 1:1 for customers in good standing, and that US residents who are not yet Paxos customers can apply to be onboarded. Before you act on old BUSD:

• Check which token you hold. The Paxos redemption covers only Paxos-issued BUSD on Ethereum, not Binance-Peg BUSD.
• If your BUSD was on Binance, check its current terms. Its notice, last updated in December 2023, said users could still deposit BUSD and convert it to FDUSD at 1:1 until further notice.
• Be careful with trading. Few platforms still list BUSD, so its price there can drift away from $1.
• Distrust unsolicited offers to swap or recover old BUSD, and use only official sites. See how to protect yourself from fraud.

Some BUSD is still in circulation. As of September 2026, stablecoin data from DefiLlama shows about $34 million of Paxos-issued BUSD and about $233 million of Binance-Peg BUSD.

Which stablecoins do people use instead?

Most dollar stablecoins in circulation today are USDT, issued by Tether, or USDC, issued by Circle. As of September 2026, DefiLlama data ranks them first and second by amount in circulation, together more than 80% of all dollar stablecoins.

On Binance, leftover BUSD balances were converted to First Digital USD (FDUSD), and Paxos offers conversion to its own USDP. Switching stablecoins does not remove risk. It means trusting a different issuer and its reserves.

Read our guides to what Tether (USDT) is and what USDC is, or compare them in USDT vs USDC. For a live price, see the USDC price and payment options.

What does BUSD teach about stablecoin risk?

It shows that a stablecoin depends on more than its reserves. Paxos said BUSD stayed fully backed, yet one regulatory order ended new supply, and the exchange whose name it carried dropped it within a year. Before you hold any stablecoin, weigh these risks:

• Issuer and regulator risk: one company controls issuance, and a regulator can order it to stop.
• Partner risk: when the Binance partnership ended, Binance dropped the coin.
• Pegged copies: a version on another blockchain, such as Binance-Peg BUSD, can depend on a different company from the original issuer.
• Losing the peg: USDC fell to about 86 cents in March 2023 after a bank holding part of its reserves failed, according to a Federal Reserve analysis.
• Freezes: issuers can block addresses. Circle’s USDC terms, for example, allow freezes in some cases, such as a legal order from a government authority.
• No deposit protection: stablecoins are not bank deposits, and no government insures them.

Past performance does not predict future results. A stablecoin that has held its peg can still lose it. Crypto transfers also cannot usually be reversed, so check the network and the address before you send any stablecoin.

Robi Uzan

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