TRYB stablecoin backed by Turkish Lira has become one of the leaders among stablecoins backed by one of the most volatile currencies in the world. TRYB has quadrupled in the past three weeks, placing second in market capitalization just behind Tether’s euro-linked EURt stablecoin.

While the stablecoin world is generally dominated by dollar-backed tokens such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), there is a smaller segment of the market that is tied to other currencies. Now, a coin backed by the Turkish lira (TRY) has become one of the largest non-dollar-linked stablecoins in the world.

Turkey-based fintech company BiLira’s Ethereum-based TRYB stablecoin is tied to the lira and allows users to issue and redeem 1 TRYB for 1 TRY. According to the official website, the stablecoin is 100% backed by fiat reserves in Turkish banks.

According to data from Coinecko, TRYB’s market value has increased 325% in the last three weeks to $136.10 million. This makes it the world’s largest non-dollar-linked stablecoin and comes just after Tether’s euro-linked EURt stablecoin with a market cap of $224 million. Tether is also behind the dollar-linked USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with a market cap of almost $83 billion.

In an email statement to CoinDesk, BiLira said, “TRYB token is often used as a medium of exchange as the Turkish lira price is very volatile and depreciates against the US dollar. Our customers use the TRYB token to convert Turkish lira fiats to cryptocurrencies and vice versa. “They use it as a means of transition,” he said.

The usage pattern is in line with the global trend. Stablecoins are widely used as a base currency in crypto trading pairs, allowing traders to access a stable asset by bypassing the volatility in fiat currencies.

“Stablecoins facilitate transactions on crypto exchanges, are the core asset of many crypto lending, and allow market participants to avoid the inefficiencies arising from a return to fiat currency for crypto transactions,” the US Federal Reserve said in December 2022. “They serve as means of payment and store of value for these transactions.” It was stated that 80% of the trading volume on centralized exchanges is carried out with stablecoins.

However, even though TRYB appears to be gaining traction in Turkey, USDT is still dominant. In the last 24 hours, the USDT/TRY pair, listed on the largest Turkey-based crypto exchange BtcTurk, saw a trading volume of $12.3 million, accounting for 18% of the total trading on the exchange. On the other hand, the total volume in TRYB trading pairs listed on MECX, Pangolin and Icrypex is just $61,700.

TRYB’s volatile market cap has caught the attention of the crypto community.

ChainArgos tweeted on X, “The timing of the massive printing and burning of TRYB is a bit odd.” “It was completely burned when FTX collapsed. It was massively reprinted when Signature Bank collapsed. It was completely burned when Binance switched to TUSD, it was reprinted when Prime Trust went bankrupt.”

In an email to CoinDesk, BiLira announced that unlike other stablecoin projects, it is printing and withdrawing tokens in batches to avoid unsustainable gas fees.

The company significantly preprints the average two-day supply and keeps it in its preprint wallet. The quantity to be preprinted depends on the daily export volume. Users receive coins in a unique warehouse controlled by BiLira. When retrieved, the tokens are sent to the TRYB Redemption Sweep wallet and then to the TRYB Burn Wallet.

BiLira said, “As Emerging Country Stablecoin, our holdings of each issue/repurchase in foreign currency reserves will make our operations unsustainable due to operational safety standards and high gas costs.”