BiLira’s Ethereum-based TRYB stablecoin, which is pegged to the Turkish lira, has become the world’s second-largest non-U.S.-dollar-pegged stablecoin. Data from Coingecko show the market cap of TRYB has surged by 325% to $136.10 million in three weeks, making it second only to Tether’s euro-pegged stablecoin EURt, which has a market cap of $224 million. According to BiLira, the stablecoin is 100% backed by fiat reserves held in Turkish banks.
Since the Turkish lira price has been very volatile and losing value against the U.S. dollar, the TRYB token is mostly a medium of exchange currency. Our customers have been using the TRYB token as a gateway to exchange their Turkish lira fiat into cryptocurrency and vice versa, BiLira told journalists in an email.
Stablecoins are widely used as a base currency in crypto trading pairs, allowing traders to access a stable asset while bypassing the volatility in fiat currencies. The U.S. Federal Reserve said in December 2022 that stablecoins essentially serve as both a means of payment and store of value for these transactions. Over 80% of volume on centralized exchanges involves stablecoins.
Despite the surge in TRYB’s market cap, USDT remains dominant. In the past 24 hours, the USDT/TRY pair listed on the largest Turkey-based crypto exchange, BtcTurk, has seen a trading volume of $12.3 million, accounting for 18% of the total activity on the exchange. Meanwhile, the total volume in TRYB trading pairs listed on MECX, Pangolin, and Icrypex is just $61,700.
BiLira explained that, unlike other stablecoin projects, it mints and redeems tokens in batches to avoid unsustainable gas fees. The company pre-mints an average of two days’ supply and keeps it in a pre-mint wallet. When redeemed, the tokens are sent to the TRYB Redemption Sweep wallet and then to the TRYB Burn Wallet.