Market makers’ blockchain transactions point to a potential $3 million arbitrage opportunity related to the depegging of the FDUSD stablecoin.
The First Digital US dollar-pegged stablecoin (FDUSD) depegged on April 2, after Tron founder Justin Sun claimed that the stablecoin issuer was insolvent. Market marker Wintermute transferred over 75 million FDUSD tokens back to First Digital within a day since the stablecoin depegged to $0.87.
“Since $FDUSD depegged, #Wintermute has transferred 75M $FDUSD to First Digital Labs,” wrote blockchain intelligence platform Lookonchain, in an April 3 X post, adding: “They likely bought $FDUSD at a discount during the depeg and redeemed it 1:1 through First Digital—making a solid profit.”
Wintermute with over 31 million FDUSD tokens from Binance right after the depegging occurred. “Assuming they bought $FDUSD near the bottom at $0.90, they would make over $3M when $FDUSD returned to the peg,” added Lookonchain.
The selling patterns of market makers have been closely watched since February’s $2.24 billion crypto liquidation event, which saw large-scale selling from multiple market participants, including market makers.
However, the crypto market crashes of 2025 have been “directly linked to TradFi events,” such as DeepSeek and Trump’s tariffs, according to Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder of Wintermute.
First Digital: “Our stablecoin remains fully backed and solvent”
Despite the insolvency claims, First Digital assured users they are completely solvent and said that FDUSD is still fully backed and redeemable with the US dollar on a 1:1 basis. “First Digital stands firm: Justin Sun’s baseless accusations won’t distract from Techteryx’s own failures— our stablecoin FDUSD remains fully backed and solvent,” wrote First Digital in an April 3 X post.
Still, some analytics tools have previously highlighted potential weaknesses in FDUSD’s stability, which was rated as 4 or “constrained” according to the S&P Global Ratings’ stablecoin stability assessment, shared with Cointelegraph on March 19.
“Our stablecoin stability assessments range from 2 (strong) to 5 (weak) in terms of a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its peg to a fiat currency,” and “the quality of the assets backing the stablecoin is a critical driver of the final assessment,” an S&P Global Ratings spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding: “Weaknesses in other areas, including regulation and supervision, governance, transparency, liquidity and redeemability, and track record, contributed to those stablecoins with lower assessments.”
First Digital said it would take legal action against Sun’s false bankruptcy allegations, which led to the stablecoin’s depegging.