{"id":21318,"date":"2018-09-26T17:50:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T17:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe79d0012697"},"modified":"2018-09-26T17:50:01","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T17:50:01","slug":"circles-usdc-stablecoin-begins-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/circles-usdc-stablecoin-begins-trading","title":{"rendered":"Circle\u2019s USDC Stablecoin Begins Trading"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
<\/figure>\n

Boston-based cryptocurrency finance firm Circle has just joined the multitudes of other crypto exchange platforms now issuing and trading their own stablecoins.<\/p>\n

As of September 26, 2018, dollar-pegged USDC is now trading on Poloniex, the crypto-to-crypto exchange Circle acquired<\/a> in February 2018, and on Circle Trade, the company\u2019s over-the-counter (OTC) platform. Circle co-founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire spelled out the details in a blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Acting as a sort of safe haven where crypto traders can park their assets in volatile markets, stablecoins have become increasingly popular. They are especially useful in exchanges that offer only crypto-to-crypto trades. Right now, there are roughly 29 active stablecoins<\/a> on the market. <\/p>\n

All of these coins make their own promises. For Circle, USDC is an Ethereum-based ERC-20<\/a> coin. A commonly used token standard, ERC-20 makes it easy for wallets, exchanges and other smart contracts to interact with the token. This helps Circle create an instant ecosystem for the token. <\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 20 companies are also announcing or launching support for USDC today,\u201d Circle said. <\/p>\n

Other exchanges planning to list the coin include OKCoin, DigiFinex, CoinEx, KuCoin, Coinplug and XDAEX, a spokesperson from Circle confirmed. <\/p>\n

Similar to the Gemini Dollar and Paxos Standard<\/a>, USDC is a fiat-collateralized coin. That means that a centralized company holds assets in a bank account and issues tokens that represent a claim on those underlying assets. (In contrast, dai, the stablecoin of MakerDAO, is backed by crypto<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

All of these coins go head-to-head with tether, the most widely used stablecoin in the space. But unlike tether, USDC is regulated as a registered money services business (MSB) under U.S. money transmission laws. As a virtual currency, it is also regulated under the New York BitLicense. What\u2019s more, bank accounts holding fiat to back the token are subject to monthly audits. <\/p>\n

Circle will be the first issuer of USDC. Other entities can issue the coin as well, but they need to go through Circle\u2019s non-profit CENTRE consortium. Leveraging $20 million<\/a> raised in a SAFT token sale last year, CENTRE is focused on defining standards and policies for stablecoins. Each entity that wishes to enroll and issue USDC is held to the same regulatory-compliant standards.<\/p>\n

To help create its new stablecoin, Circle raised<\/a> $110 million in May 2018 in a round led by China-based cryptocurrency giant Bitmain. It was, at the time, the biggest venture capital round raised by a cryptocurrency or blockchain company to date. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston-based cryptocurrency finance firm Circle has just joined the multitudes of other crypto exchange platforms now issuing and trading their own stablecoins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3488,"featured_media":21319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3084,1747,3085,804],"class_list":{"0":"post-21318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-circle","9":"tag-cryptocurrencies","10":"tag-poloniex","11":"tag-stablecoins"},"author_data":{"id":3488,"name":"Amy Castor","nicename":"amy-castor","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/amy-castor-promo-image-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/circles-usdc-stablecoin-begins-trading.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}