First Digital (FDUSD)
Hong Kong trust-issued stablecoin; Binance's primary listing post-BUSD
Issued by First Digital Trust (Hong Kong) · founded 2023 · Hong Kong
⚠ Not financial advice
Stablecoin issuer disclosures, reserves composition, regulatory status, and redemption mechanics change continually. This page is reference information, not investment advice. Verify current attestations directly at the issuer's transparency page (https://firstdigitallabs.com/transparency) before allocating capital.
Verdict
FDUSD launched June 2023 as Binance's replacement for BUSD following Paxos's BUSD discontinuation. First Digital Trust is a Hong Kong-regulated trust company; reserves are held in segregated client accounts. Monthly attestation. The concentration risk is real: FDUSD is heavily tied to Binance's preference as the on-exchange stablecoin; if Binance reroutes to a different stablecoin (as it did from BUSD to FDUSD), FDUSD's market cap would compress materially.
Peg mechanism
Fiat-backed. Cash + Treasury bills; held in segregated client accounts at the Hong Kong trust
Reserves + attestation
- Composition: Cash + Treasury bills; held in segregated client accounts at the Hong Kong trust
- Attestation firm: Prescient Assurance (Hong Kong)
- Cadence: monthly
- Transparency page: https://firstdigitallabs.com/transparency
Regulatory status
Hong Kong-regulated trust company. First Digital Trust holds the appropriate Hong Kong trust-company authorisation.
Badges: Hong Kong Trust Company · Monthly Attestation · Segregated Client Accounts
Key features
- Hong Kong regulated trust framework
- Monthly reserves attestation
- Binance's primary on-exchange USD stablecoin pair (post-BUSD)
- Native issuance on Ethereum + BNB Chain
Pros
- Hong Kong trust company framework is well-developed
- Monthly attestation cadence
- Strong on-exchange liquidity via Binance partnership
Cons
- Heavy concentration on Binance partnership — single-exchange dependency
- Limited operating history (2023-)
- Hong Kong regulatory framework offers different recourse than US/EU customer-protection regimes
- Smaller market cap than USDT/USDC; narrower off-Binance availability
Historical incidents
- 2026-04-02: FDUSD briefly depegged to ~$0.87 on April 2, 2026 after Justin Sun (Tron) publicly alleged First Digital Trust was insolvent on X. First Digital denied the accusations and published a reserve attestation demonstrating full backing. FDUSD returned to ~$1.00 within 48 hours. The incident highlighted the counterparty risk of smaller fiat-backed issuers and the impact of social-media rumor on smaller stablecoin pegs.
Market context
- Market cap: $3.0B (2026-05-28)
- Issuer entity: First Digital Trust (Hong Kong)
- HQ: Hong Kong
- Founded: 2023
- Token ticker: FDUSD
Compare with
- Circle (USDC) — Most-regulated major dollar stablecoin; only major fiat-backed stablecoin currently MiCA-compliant
- Tether (USDT) — Largest stablecoin by market cap; deepest global liquidity; NOT MiCA-compliant
Risk + safety analysis
For the full risk-factor breakdown including verdict tone, regulatory-status cards, historical-incidents timeline, and risk-class scoring, see Is FDUSD safe? — risk + safety analysis.
Where to read further
See all 8 stablecoin issuers ranked for the full comparison, MiCA-licensed crypto banks for the operator-side EU framework, and our full crypto-banks ranking for the platforms where stablecoins are actually held + transacted.
Disclaimer
This page is general information, not financial, investment, or legal advice. Stablecoin issuer disclosures, reserves composition, regulatory status, and redemption mechanics change continually; always verify directly with the issuer before allocating capital. See terms.