In basis points — and against the right yardstick
The first is the unit. A stablecoin at 0.9985 is 15 basis points from parity, which a percentage display rounds to 0.15% or, worse, to 0.00%. Fifteen basis points is routine market-making; a hundred and fifty is a different event entirely. Reporting in basis points is the only way those two look as different as they are.
The second is the reference. Binance quotes stablecoins against USDT, so every number on this board is a comparison to USDT rather than to a dollar. When USDT itself drifts, all the other rows move the opposite way and a tracker that says nothing about it will report a synchronised "depeg" of everything except the one coin actually moving. Taking the median of the others and inverting it recovers USDT's own drift, which is shown at the top.
One more constraint follows from the arithmetic: only dollar-pegged tokens belong on a board measured against dollar parity. A euro-pegged stablecoin trades near 1.15 against USDT because that is the exchange rate, and reporting it as fourteen hundred basis points off peg would be a statement about EUR/USD rather than about the token.
Even done properly, the measurement has a hard limit: price is the market's opinion about whether reserves exist and are redeemable, not evidence about it. That opinion has been wrong in both directions before — slow to react in some failures, and briefly panicked about tokens that turned out fine.
⚠️ Not investment advice. Figures cover Binance spot markets only; the same token can trade differently elsewhere or redeem at a different value entirely. A wide deviation on a thinly traded pair reflects the order book rather than the token. All decisions and risks are your own.
Because the numbers are small and the differences matter. A stablecoin fifteen basis points from parity is doing ordinary market-making; one hundred and fifty basis points away is a different event. A percentage display rounds both toward 0.00% and hides the distinction.
No, against USDT. Binance quotes stablecoins in USDT, so 0.999 means a tenth of a percent below USDT rather than below a dollar. That matters because when USDT itself drifts, every other row moves the opposite way.
By taking the median deviation of the other stablecoins and inverting it. If they all sit the same distance on the same side, the simpler explanation is that the yardstick moved. The median is used rather than the average so that one genuinely failing token does not drag the estimate.
Usually not. Redemption takes hours and costs fees, so arbitrage does not close a few basis points instantly and stablecoins oscillate around parity continuously. Real depegs persist and widen rather than revert, and volume rises sharply as holders exit.
Because a wide deviation on a thinly traded pair describes the order book rather than the token. Without volume, a quiet market with a wide spread looks identical to a run.
No. Price is the market’s opinion about whether reserves exist and can be redeemed, not evidence about it, and that opinion has been wrong in both directions — slow in some failures, briefly panicked about tokens that were fine.