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Circle jumps on the stablecoin bandwagon with USD//Coin
Bitcoin and blockchain startup Circle Internet Financial Inc. is the latest company to jump on the stablecoin bandwagon with the launch USD//Coin (USDC), a cryptocurrency linked to the price of the U.S. dollar.
Announced by the company in May, USDC has been developed in conjunction with the company’s CENTRE affiliate consortium, a new group developed to provide independent oversight of USDC’s development, promotion and stability.
CENTER’s role is to act as a regulator for USDC issuers, ensuring that they possess state licenses to handle electronic money, meet the anti-money-laundering standards and have banking partners to hold their dollar reserves. To avoid any suggestions on impropriety, CENTRE will also facilitate monthly audits from certified public auditors.
The token is Ethereum-based and is being pitched as “a solution that enables customers to purchase and use USDC fiat tokens for payments and trading in the crypto ecosystem.”
“The major application for fiat stablecoins over the last 18 months has been as a mechanism for trading and hedging in global crypto capital markets,” Joao Reginatto, Circle’s director of European product and operations, said in a blog post. “Investors and traders need seamless on- and off-ramps for fiat currency into the exchange ecosystem, and need to be able to hedge in and out of volatile crypto assets, as well as move stable value across exchange venues to seek arbitrage and liquidity opportunities.”
From day one, the new stablecoin has strong support. A spokesperson from Circle told SiliconANGLE that USDC will be immediately available on Circle Poloniex and Circle Trade and listed on exchanges such as DigiFinex, CoinEx and OkCoin, in addition to being used by companies such as BlockFi and Origin.
Circle is not the first and won’t be the last to launch a stablecoin. The best-known current stablecoin, Bitfinex’s Tether, is under investigation by U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in relation to allegations that it never had U.S. dollars in reserve to back its value.
Other recent stablecoins include the Gemini Dollar, from the Gemini Trust Co. LLC digital asset exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins and Paxos Trust Co. LLC’s Paxos Standard token, the latter with a backdoor that could potentially be hacked.
Image: Circle
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