USD Coin
Denominations
CodeUSDC
Development
White paperUSDC White Paper
Initial releaseSeptember 2018
Developer(s)Circle
Ledger
Circulating supply$25.2 Billion
Website
Websitewww.circle.com/en/usdc

USD Coin (USDC) is a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. USD Coin is managed by Circle.[1] USDC is issued by a private entity and should not be confused with a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Usage

USDC is primarily available as an Ethereum ERC-20 token, and on blockchains including Hedera Hashgraph, Algorand, Avalanche, Solana, Stellar, Polygon, and TRON.[2] in August 2023, Circle announced that USDC would be available on six additional blockchains: Base, Cosmos via the Noble network, NEAR, Optimism, Polkadot, and Polygon PoS.[3] Visa announced it was expanding a pilot program that sends USDC over the Solana blockchain to help pay merchants in cryptocurrency.[4]

Reserves

Circle claims that each USDC is backed by a dollar held in reserve, or by other "approved investments", though these are not detailed. The wording on the Circle website changed from the previous "backed by US dollars" to "backed by fully reserved assets" in June 2021.[5]

USDC reserves are regularly attested (but not audited) by Grant Thornton, LLP,[6] and the monthly attestations can be found on the Centre Consortium's website.[7]

History

USDC was first announced on 15 May 2018 by Circle,[6] and was launched in September 2018 by a company called Centre, which was a joint venture between Circle and Coinbase.[8]

On March 29, 2021, Visa announced that it would allow the use of USDC to settle transactions on its payment network.[9]

As of July 2022, Circle states that there are 55 billion USDC in circulation.[10]

On March 11, 2023, USDC lost its peg to the dollar after Circle confirmed $3.3 billion, approximately 8% of its reserves, were at risk due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank that occurred the previous day.[11] USDC regained its peg to the dollar four days later.[12]

In August 2023, Circle and Coinbase closed the Centre Consortium, the organization that had managed USDC since 2018, giving Circle sole governance of USDC.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Arnold, Martin (15 May 2018). "China bitcoin miner Bitmain leads $110m investment in Circle". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  2. ↑ "Centre | USD Coin". www.centre.io. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  3. 1 2 "USDC to be available on 15 blockchains after adding 6—including Base, Optimism, and Polygon PoS—over next 2 months". Fortune Crypto. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  4. ↑ "Visa to send stablecoin USDC over Solana to help pay merchants in crypto". Fortune Crypto. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Venkataramakrishnan, Siddharth (9 July 2021). "Circle listing will test top stablecoin's transparency over reserves". Financial Times.
  6. 1 2 Irrera, Anna (16 May 2018). "Circle raises $110 million, plans to create dollar-pegged cryptocurrency". Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  7. ↑ Centre. "Centre | USD Coin". www.centre.io. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  8. ↑ Rooney, Kate (23 October 2018). "Cryptocurrency giants Coinbase and Circle form joint venture to boost adoption of dollar-backed digital coins". CNBC. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  9. ↑ Hussain, Noor Zainab (29 March 2021). "Exclusive: Visa moves to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  10. ↑ "A Letter from our CEO | Circle's Strength, Stability & Transparency".
  11. ↑ Ge Huang, Vicky; Miao, Hannah; Ostroff, Caitlin (11 March 2023). "Circle's USDC Stablecoin Breaks Peg With $3.3 Billion Stuck at Silicon Valley Bank". The Wall Street Journal.
  12. ↑ "US Bank Crisis Prompts Stablecoin Backer's Flight to Big Lenders". Bloomberg.com. 16 March 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
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