USDC

Circle publishes USDC stablecoin attestation to increase transparency

July 22, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

USDC stablecoin has managed to garner significant traction over the past few months. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar-pegged stablecoin had grown more than 2,600%. in terms of circulation. In the latest development, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of the team behind the digital token, Circle has published a new post wherein he elucidated that the stablecoin is backed by trust, transparency, and accountability.

Allaire claimed in his blog post that Circle and the Centre Consortium has guaranteed the “pillars of trust” to ensure that the community recognises that USDC remains backed on a 1:1 basis with dollar-denominated assets. The exec also underscored that the “pillars of trust” includes ensuring that the USDC ecosystem remained under the governance of the highest level of regulatory and prudential standards.

While stating that the commitment to openness, competition, and responsible financial services innovation remains a foundation for both the Centre Consortium and Circle, Allaire went on to add,

“Providing assurances demonstrated by reserve attestations issued by Grant Thornton, one of the world’s leading accounting firms, that dollar-denominated assets can meet circulation for USDC outstanding. Core economic activities underpinning USDC are built inside the perimeter of the U.S. financial system, and not outside of it.”

Circle’s future plans for USDC

Allaire revealed pondering over different mechanisms to share this in an on-chain, Oracle-linked format while developing and publishing comprehensive analytics on the core liquidity profile of USD Coin, such as the history of creation and redemption behaviour associated with market conditions.

As the stabkecoin issuer moves ahead with its ambitious plans with the upcoming transition to a public company, Circle aims to enhance opportunities for greater transparency, accountability and disclosure around its wider business and functions. Collectively, Allaire asserted that this expanding public accountability can, in fact, aid in enhancing trust in Circle, the USDC stablecoin and ventures building on the standards and market infrastructure that the team has been generating over the past several years.

Stablecoins facilitated an astonishing $1.7T in transaction volume in Q2: Messari

July 14, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Stablecoins are non-volatile assets that mostly remained got fresh attention this month after the USDC issuer, Circle revealed its plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange, that too on the same day, when China’s central bank warned about these tokens citing serious risks to global financial systems.

The price of the cryptocurrencies might have taken a backseat, but the transaction volume of stablecoins has remained widely unfazed. According to Messari’s latest report, these tokens saw impressive growth in Q2 this year. In fact, this cohort of cryptocurrencies reportedly facilitated an unprecedented $1.7 trillion in transaction volume, an increase of 1,090% year-over-year and 59% since Q1.

Messari’s Senior Research Analyst, Ryan Watkins noted,

“The stablecoins story continues to rhyme each subsequent quarter – climbing up and to the right.”

USDT’s dwindling market dominance paves the way for other stablecoins

Watkins also mentioned that the stablecoin monetary base climbed above $107 billion in the second quarter of the year, and was 70% since the first quarter in addition to raking in 803% year-over-year. While Tether [USDT] still leads the figures, its dominance has been dwindling of late, owing to serious controversies that have damaged its reputation. As a result, USDC, BUSD, and DAI have been on a rapid increase. So much so that their market share has applied by 23%, 9%, and 5%, respectively.

USDC, for one, has experienced a tremendous leg up in Q2. Currently, more than 50% of the total supply now sits in smart contracts which is almost equivalent to $12.5 billion. While this share is not as high as DAI, USDC still leads by a wide margin in terms of dollars.

In addition to that, Messari also observed that the decentralized stablecoins have also maintained a consistent upward trajectory. Fortunately, decentralized tokens such as DAI’s continue to win share from centralized stablecoins. At the beginning of the second quarter, the decentralized ones surged to an all-time high of almost 10% of the total stablecoin supply.

Besides, DAI remained the market leader this quarter with a 61% share of the market. Interestingly, its share had taken a hit in Q1 due to Terra’s rise.

USDC on Tron Blockchain Hits $111 Million 4 days after expansion

July 4, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

USDC activity on the Tron [TRX] blockchain has hit a milestone already. As per the latest stats on Tronscan, the world’s second-largest stablecoin’s circulating supply reached $111.68 million on the 4th of July.

This news comes just four days after CENTRE, the consortium run by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and payments firm Circle, announced that USDC will be implemented on Tron, Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, and Tezos. Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire had earlier noted,

“TRON has built a very large and highly successful blockchain platform and network, and is one of the most widely used in stablecoin transactions. We’re excited to bring the benefits of a trusted dollar digital currency such as USDC to this growing ecosystem of users and developers.”

Growing Tron’s appeal and USDC’s dominance

It is important to note that USDC has experienced unprecedented activity over the last few quarters. Reports have also gone on to state that it could soon become a dominant stablecoin on the Ethereum network. It has emerged as one of the most preferred stablecoin in the decentralized finance [DeFi] sector. To top that, over 50% of USDC supply currently rests in smart contracts which totals up to almost 12.5 billion. Additionally, Tether’s growing legal woes also deviated users from turning to USDC, which could be attributed to the leading stablecoin slowly losing grip.

Meanwhile, this new achievement on the TRX blockchain could also signify that the market players are increasingly seeking other blockchains that facilitate transactions at a much cheaper and significantly faster pace than Ethereum. Besides, the TRX blockchain has already seen rapid growth for USDT, on its network. As a matter of fact, USDT on Justin Sun’s blockchain has recently surpassed that on Ethereum.

In short, USDC’s growing dominance in the market has coincided with Tron’s growing appeal as a critical alternative to the Ethereum network.

Tron among 10 blockchain platforms stablecoin USDC plans to expand

June 30, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Tron has been chosen as one of the ten blockchain platforms that Centre has enabled its members to issue the stablecoin USDC. Center is a consortium that is operated by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and payments firm Circle. Initially launched on the Ethereum blockchain, USDC was slowly expanded across other platforms such as Algorand, Stellar, and Solana chains in late 2020.

Apart from Tron, USDC will now be implemented on Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, and Tezos. The official press release of the stablecoin issuer read,

“From inception, our vision was to support USDC on multiple blockchain platforms. Bringing USDC to multiple chains enables users to take advantage of the speed, scalability and cost efficiency provided by next generation public chains.”

The latest move by Center is touted be the extensive expansion of the leading stablecoin as it eclipsed the eight blockchains that support the market leader, Tether’s USDT, which boasts a market cap of more than $62 billion. Over the past couple of months, USDC has witnessed massive growth especially due to unprecedented rally in the cryptocurrency market. The expansion comes in the heels of USDC surpassing the $25 billion market cap for the first time ever.

Following the development, Tron Foundation CEO, Justin Sun tweeted,

“Stablecoins will continue to play an important role and thrive in the cryptocurrency market, and TRC20-USDC’s roadmap and development on TRON is most definitely something to keep an eye on!”

Tron as a popular alternative

Tron also hosts USDT which has seen equally explosive growth in the past quarter. Another biggest contributing factor that resulted in the growth of the USDT on the Tron blockchain was the frustratingly high transaction fees on Ethereum that led many market participants who often use the stablecoin during trading to leave promptly from short-term trades and lock in gains with an asset at a stabilized value.

Just last month, the stablecoin issuer Tether had released 30 billion USDT as TRC20 tokens on the Tron blockchain, which went on to become the highest amount the stablecoin has ever issued on any chain.

USDC Goes Live On Stellar’s Decentralized Exchange

February 3, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

The world’s leading stablecoin backed by Circle and Coinbase, USD Coin [USDC] went live on Stellar’s decentralized exchange, on the 2nd of February. David Puth, the CEO of Centre Consortium, asserted that the partnership of Stellar and Centre would further advance the growth of USDC while strengthening the Stellar ecosystem at the same time.

According to the official announcement, at launch, the Stellar USDC was available on Stellar’s decentralized exchange, accessible to any Stellar account through integrated wallets and tradeable across Stellar’s ecosystem of over 9,000 assets which includes stablecoins such as NGNT, BRLT, ARST, EURT, TZS and ZAR.

Notably, Stellar was previously announced as an official chain of the stablecoin back in October 2020 by Stellar Development Foundation [SDF] and the Centre Consortium, which was co-founded by Circle and Coinbase. ‍

Following the announcement, Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation was quoted saying,

“This integration is going to be a powerhouse for growth in the Stellar ecosystem and a catalyst towards achieving our mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system. It presents significant business opportunities for both new and existing companies to build on the respective strengths of USDC and Stellar.”

Furthermore, the latest integration also aims to benefit businesses and developers from Circle’s scale and liquidity to deliver on the kinds of products and use cases the Stellar especially with respect to cross-border payments and tokenization.

Rise in Circulation of USDC Tokens

USDC was first developed on Ethereum blockchain but with the partnership, Stellar has become the fourth blockchain to support the stablecoin.

Besides, owing to the wider adoption of the cryptocurrency over the last couple of months, stablecoins in circulation have exploded at an astonishing rate. Moreover, the number of USDC tokens in circulation also saw a parabolic rise of more than ten-fold over the last 12 months. Most notably, the stablecoin gained momentum after July when prices of Bitcoin and altcoins picked up the pace.

At the time of writing, USDC’s market cap was found to be at $5.93 billion.

Bitcoin Aims For $40K Yet Again As Stablecoin Inflow Spikes

January 15, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Stablecoin influx into cryptocurrency exchanges has surged as Bitcoin’s price saw a relief rally and approached $40k.

As Bitcoin joined the bullish streak yet again, the run has opened new doors for the stablecoin bunch. The dollar-pegged or asset-backed-tokens have gained much wider adoption in recent times as their importance has gained prominence amidst the continued volatility in the market which brought about the need for lower volatility crypto-assets.

According to the crypto analytical platform, Santiment, these pegged crypto-assets have continued to have larger and larger ratios of tokens moving to several cryptocurrency exchanges. Tokens such as USDC, TUSD, and SAI have especially mirrored the proportion of its tokens moved to exchanges as Bitcoin’s price has surged.

Why now?

If the factors such as individual and institutional interest go, the case for a wider blockchain and crypto-asset adoption and investment is inevitable. Moreover, taking into consideration the growing and expanding ecosystem, the potential market participants and users have strongly sought to gain exposure to this area, at the same time, there is also a push for less volatile, and more sophisticated, crypto investment options which has further helped pegged tokens to surge in market cap.

What Does Stablecoin’s Resurgence Mean For Bitcoin?

According to data from CryptoQuant, stablecoin deposits was first noted around the 13th of January when Bitcoin’s price saw a noticeable spike after trading in the red zone. Along with it, the cryptocurrency market also showed signs of recovery. Hence, the latest trend was indicative of significant buying pressure for Bitcoin as well as altcoins. This also meant that the investors bought the dip as depicted by the rising stablecoin inflow.

This is evident because traders tend to use stablecoins such as Tether [USDT] or USDC etc., rather than fiat since these are pegged to the value of fiat which makes it tradable across exchanges. The demand for stablecoins has increased magnificently over the past weeks. Leading the pack was USDT with a market cap of more than $24 billion as whales and high-net-worth investors jumped in to stack millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.

USDC Stablecoin Gets A Boost; Circle To Start High Yield Digital Dollar Business Accounts

November 6, 2020 by Sahana Kiran

The volatile nature of the crypto industry prevented several individuals from stepping into the market. However, stablecoins were rolled out as a boon to these individuals as these coins are pegged to a fiat currency and do not entail the wrath of being highly volatile. Taking stablecoins up a notch, prominent crypto platform, Circle has revealed its latest feature that involves the stablecoin USDC.

Businesses Accounts To Be Built On The Second-Largest Stablecoin

USDC was the brainchild of Circle and its collaboration with San Francisco’s crypto exchange Coinbase. Today, USDC persists as the second-largest stablecoin with a market cap of $2.863 billion. The USDC stablecoin did unravel well and Circle has decided to capitalize on the stablecoin.

In a recent blog post, Circle announced that it would soon roll out business accounts for both short as well as medium-term high yield interest rates. These accounts would further be formulated entirely on USDC. Users would, however, be required to join a waitlist to garner a digital dollar business account. The APY on these accounts starts from 8.5% and would go up to 10.75% for a 12-month fixed term. The fixed-term again ranges from one month to 12 months.

Circle’s latest move would aid platforms longing for higher maturities, businesses as well as fintech. Elaborating on the yet to be launched platform, Circle’s blog post read,

“While stablecoins such as USDC have become bedrocks for how fiat currency moves in the support of crypto asset markets, it’s also grown dramatically as a liquid digital dollar used in rapidly growing internet-based borrowing and lending markets.”

This high yield program is in association with Genesis Global Capital. Circle revealed that through this partnership, the platform intends to offer a streamlined program to stimulate internet businesses as well as fintech.

The USD coin has come a long way and is seen making its way to the top of the crypto ladder. While USDT still remains the largest stablecoin with a market cap of $17 billion, the latest news from Circle could accelerate the market cap of USDC.

Tether Dips by 80% Despite Stablecoins Supply Hitting $20B as USDC Bolsters

September 30, 2020 by Reena Shaw

While the cryptocurrency market was on a rollercoaster ride this year, it was the stablecoins that witnessed exponential growth. The market has recently touched the coveted $20 billion mark with respect to the total volume of stablecoins in circulation. Tether [USDT] continued to dominate the charts despite a minor slip and still had a large fraction of supply share, while other stablecoins were starting to make up the ground.

This was revealed by the latest edition of Coin Metrics’ State of Network report which further noted that it was the growth of the second-largest stablecoin USDC growth that has been outpacing Tether causing its fall below 80%, a level unseen in the modern era of stablecoins.

Despite the fact that the values of all other stablecoins combined pales in comparison to the supply of USDT, which currently stood at $15.46 the growth of the contenders market cannot be ignored.

USDC Sets out to Eclipse USDT

The Coinbase-backed stablecoin has recorded massive gains this year. The total supply has topped $2.53 billion and is showing no signs of slowing down. USDC is essentially a centralized dollar-pegged stablecoin which is issued by the Centre Consortium, a collaboration between crypto exchange Coinbase and payment service firm Circle.

The growth was potentially triggered due to the recent explosion in DeFi’s yield farming popularity, in which the liquidity providers are incentivized for staking stablecoins and other digital assets in decentralized protocols for the use of financial activities such as loan issuance, etc.

USDC always had an edge over other stableccoins since it was the first Ethereum-based stablecoin that was launched after Tether in 2018. Furthermore, USDC already issued a supply of over $400 million before its rivals such as Huobi’s HUSD and Binance’s BUSD which were released a year later.

What further spurred the growth was the release of USDC version 2.0 in August this year which added additional security infrastructure to the USDC smart contract. With the association of industry giant such Coinbase, the stablecoin has become increasingly popular among the newcomers as well as experienced traders of the platform. And hence, USDC has managed to establish itself as a go-to asset in the DeFi sector, a major onramp within the ecosystem.

Algorand Becomes Official Chain For USDC After Stablecoin’s Launch On Mainnet

September 10, 2020 by Reena Shaw

Goldman Sachs-backed global fintech firm Circle announced the launch of its stablecoin USDC on Algorand’s mainnet. In collaboration with the Centre Consortium, the platform announced that Algorand is now an official blockchain for USDC.

Following this development, Algorand becomes the second major blockchain to have the two most popular stablecoins- Tether [USDT] and Circle’s USD-pegged stablecoin USD Coin [USDC] after Ethereum.

According to the official blog post, the Algorand implementation of USDC will allow on-chain transactions that provide nearly instant settlement finality [5 seconds], with a transaction throughput approaching 1000 tps and current average transaction fees of nearly 1/20th of a cent [USD]. Using public APIs, developers can also swap USDC across Ethereum and Algorand.

Commenting on the new launch, cryptography pioneer and Turing award winner Silvio Micali, Founder of Algorand, Inc stated,

“This is a defining milestone for frictionless mainstream payments as well as sophisticated financial applications. This launch brings together the convenience of USDC and an advanced protocol for global financial exchange in which Layer-1 smart contracts are as simple and secure as ordinary payments.”

Previously in June this year, Circle had partnered with the not-for-profit organization, Algorand Foundation to bring fiat-backed stablecoin capability to the Algorand blockchain, as part of the broader effort from Centre Consortium for the development of Multichain USDC.

Besides, over the past year, USDC has grown significantly making it one of the largest stablecoins in the world. Its market cap stood at $1.83 at the time of writing. Having the two most popular stablecoins is likely to attract more high-value stablecoins on Algorand. Additionally, this launch also opens doors for the foundation to get a boost from Circle’s extensive list of investors with industry giants, such as Bitmain, and Goldman Sachs.

While stating that the launch represents a significant improvement to the stablecoin’s scalability, improving its utility and making it a significantly more useful protocol for solving real-world financial problems, Alesia Haas, Chief Financial Officer at Coinbase also added,

“Expanding USDC from Ethereum to additional blockchains like Algorand will ensure USDC has the flexibility to support everything from emerging DeFi projects to large-scale financial institutions.”

Switzerland launched the World Stablecoin Association to Promote Global Stablecoins Development

July 24, 2020 by Arnold Kirimi

The stablecoin market is currently experiencing a massive surge, and the cryptocurrency ecosystem is establishing an international stablecoin organization in crypto-friendly Switzerland. The headquarters of the organization, the World Stablecoin Association (WSA), will be based in the city of Geneva.

According to reports, the association will be set up by the VirgoX Crypto Exchange Platform and the Global Digital Assets Company of Blockchain Capital Markets. The Chief Executive Officer of VirgoX, Adam Cai, noted that the main objective of the international stablecoin organization is to create a genuine, neutral universal organization consisting of all major stablecoin projects.

Besides, Cai noted that the WSA is already involved in discussions with key stablecoin schemes such as Tether (USDT), DAI, USDC, and HUSD; they aim to join the international stablecoin organization by the end of the year. Notably, WSA is currently supporting upcoming stablecoin startups. He stressed that the key issue facing the stablecoin sector is that the upcoming stablecoin initiatives are still short on adoption.

International stablecoin organization membership

During the launch of WSA, its membership consisted of the two founder companies, and blockchain-based smart contracts audit firm, BlockGeeks. The WSA also features global stablecoin such as the QCAD, which is backed by the Canadian dollar and Ren De-Fi protocol.

Furthermore, Cai noted that the member firms would participate in monthly virtual conferences, and actual seminars in Geneva, Switzerland. The conferences’ primary agenda will be to discuss the development of stablecoins, providing, and examining networking and partnership possibilities.

More members of the international stablecoin organization include projects such as CBRL, Peg Network, Stably, USDK, XDB, and entities like Nova Club, Alpha Sigma Capital, and Consensus Labs. The announcement also noted that WSA is open to allow various firms; such as businesses, government bodies, and other relevant entities in the stablecoin sector to join..

Stablecoin market surging rapidly

The establishment of an international stablecoin organization follows the explosion of the stablecoin industry in 2020. Over the last seven months, major stablecoin projects, Tether and USD Coin, have reached significant landmarks. Earlier this week, Tether hit a $10 billion amount, reaching a new all-time high in its market cap. On the other hand, USDC reached a significant landmark earlier this month, breaking past the $1 billion market cap threshold.