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Circle Taps Plaid for ACH Payments as USDC Market Cap Hits $30B
The integration looks to provide a smoother process for getting money in and out of crypto.
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:45 p.m. Published Sep 23, 2021, 5:57 p.m.
Stablecoin issuer Circle said that it is partnering with financial data aggregator Plaid to make it easier for consumers to move their money out of the bank and into Circle’s USDC.
Like its partnership with Visa, working with Plaid is another way for Circle to become more deeply integrated with networks that allow users to move faster between fiat and dollar-backed crypto tokens via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. USDC is among the leading stablecoins flowing across the crypto ecosystem.
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“By integrating with Plaid, Circle is demonstrating – yet again – how we’re able to work with technology and finance leaders in the payment industry and leverage the power of USDC to generate frictionless economic activity,” Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte said in a statement.
The move comes as the total value of USDC in circulation hits the $30 billion mark. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire pointed out Wednesday:
1/2 Three years ago (Sept. 24th 2018), together with @coinbase, we launched USDC. Today, we celebrate that with USDC reaching 30 Billion in circulation. On track for 1000% growth in 2021. pic.twitter.com/aazrmxZd2F
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) September 22, 2021
Plaid connects to banks around the world so that other fintechs don’t have to, and the company is connected to several companies in the crypto ecosystem, ranging from the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, to decentralized finance (DeFi) startups like Dharma, the Uniswap-friendly DeFi wallet.
In practical terms, Circle’s bank, the New York-based Signature, will get the account information for consumers looking to buy USDC more quickly when they’re buying through Plaid-connected crypto apps.
“The Circle and Plaid combination has completely streamlined our business’s fiat to crypto operations,” Matthew Hamilton, co-founder of Linus, one of the startups using the integration, said in a statement.
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