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USD Coin

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This article is about the cryptocurrency. For United States coinage, see Coins of the United States dollar.

USD Coin
Denominations
CodeUSDC
Development
White paperUSDC White Paper
Initial releaseSeptember 2018
Developer(s)Circle
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 available as an Ethereum ERC-20 token, and on other blockchains.[2][3] Visa began a pilot program to send USDC over the Solana blockchain to the payment firms Worldpay and Nuvei, who could then transfer payment to merchants.[4]

Reserves

Circle claimed prior to mid-2021 that each USDC was backed by a dollar held in reserve, or by other "approved investments", though the other investments were 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]

As of 2020, USDC reserves were regularly attested (but not audited) by Grant Thornton, LLP,[6] and as of 2021, the monthly attestations could 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 consortium called Centre, 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 said that there were 55 billion USDC in circulation.[10]

On March 11, 2023, USDC lost its peg to the dollar for several days after Circle publicly stated that $3.3 billion, approximately 8% of its reserves, were at risk due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank that had 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.[13]

Circle discontinued USDC on the TRON blockchain in February 2024 as a result of risk management assessment. While minting of new USDC halted on 21 February 2024, customers will have until February 2025 to transfer USDC to other blockchains.[14]

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. ^ "USDC to be available on 15 blockchains after adding 6—including Base, Optimism, and Polygon PoS—over next 2 months". Fortune. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
  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. ^ a b 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.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Wilson, Tom (21 February 2024). "Crypto firm Circle to end support for USDC stablecoin on Tron blockchain". Reuters. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
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