
History, technology and key data — no opinions, no advice
Price updated every 60 seconds. Minor differences between exchanges may occur.
Daily historical data. Updated automatically.
First Digital USD has its roots in First Digital Group, a company that began operations in Hong Kong during 2018 as a digital asset custodian for blockchain companies, initially operating under the name Legacy Trust. The project was led by Vincent Chok from its inception, establishing the foundations of what would subsequently become one of the most relevant stablecoin issuers in the Asian market.
On 1st June 2023, FD121 Limited, a subsidiary of First Digital Limited, officially launched FDUSD on the Ethereum and BNB Chain networks. This launch strategically coincided with the implementation of Hong Kong's new guidelines for virtual asset platform operators, positioning FDUSD as the first major USD stablecoin issued from Hong Kong under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) regulatory framework. The reserves were held in segregated accounts under the Hong Kong Trust Ordinance, providing a robust legal framework for the operation.
A turning point came on 1st September 2023, when Binance announced that its users had to migrate their BUSD holdings to FDUSD. This decision arose after the US regulator NYDFS ordered Paxos to cease the issuance of BUSD, Binance's own stablecoin. The exchange implemented an automatic conversion of all BUSD to FDUSD before February 2024, which catapulted FDUSD into the top 5 stablecoins by market capitalisation.
In April 2024, FDUSD reached a market capitalisation of approximately 4,000 million USD, consolidating itself as the fourth largest stablecoin in the world after USDT, USDC and DAI. However, on 2nd April 2025, the stablecoin faced its biggest crisis when Justin Sun, founder of TRON, publicly accused First Digital Trust of insolvency, claiming that his clients' funds were "trapped" and irrecoverable. FDUSD momentarily lost the peg to the dollar, falling to 0.88 USD, although First Digital categorically denied the accusations, published transparency reports and indicated that Sun had commercial motivations to destabilise the stablecoin. The peg was restored within hours.
During 2025, after the depeg episode, FDUSD stabilised its capitalisation around 1,400-1,500 million USD. The stablecoin expanded its availability to multiple blockchains, operating on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana and SUI, whilst maintaining its reserves composed of US T-Bills, cash and bank deposits.
FDUSD functions as a stablecoin backed directly by US dollars in a 1:1 ratio, issued by FD121 Limited under Hong Kong regulatory supervision. The backing mechanism operates through First Digital Trust Limited, a trust company registered under the Hong Kong Trustee Ordinance that acts as independent custodian of the reserves. These reserves are composed of short-term US Treasury bills, cash and cash equivalents, held in segregated accounts at financial institutions in Hong Kong, Australia and Switzerland, completely separated from the issuer's operations to provide protection in case of insolvency.
The issuance and redemption process for FDUSD requires users to complete a KYC/AML verification process as clients of First Digital Labs. Once verified, they can deposit US dollars to receive newly minted FDUSD tokens in exact 1:1 ratio, or return FDUSD tokens to be burnt and receive the corresponding dollars in exchange. The stablecoin operates natively on multiple blockchains: Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, BNB Chain as BEP-20, and also on Solana and SUI networks, enabling its use across different DeFi ecosystems.
System transparency is maintained through monthly attestations published by an independent auditor that verifies the state of the reserves. FDUSD has acquired particular relevance in the crypto ecosystem by becoming the main trading pair on Binance following the withdrawal of BUSD, positioning itself as a regulated alternative from Hong Kong in the dollar-backed stablecoin market.
Data verified against external sources. Some values may have changed since the last update.