Binance Exchange Will List the USDC Stablecoin This Week

Binance, currently the world’s third largest cryptocurrency exchange by bitcoin trading volume, is adding support for the recently launched stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), this weekend.

Binance announced Thursday that it will open trading pairs for the regulated, U.S. dollar-pegged token against its own token Binance coin BNB$656.80 and bitcoin BTC$77,349.71 on Nov. 17, adding that it has already started accepting deposits for USDC in preparation for the start of trading.

Crypto finance firm Circle, which was involved in the token's development, also confirmed the news with CoinDesk on Thursday.

USDC was launched in September by CENTRE consortium as a way to tokenize U.S. dollars and easily transfer value on public blockchains.

The support for USDC comes shortly after Wei Zhou, Binance’s CFO, told CoinDesk in October that the firm is looking to list more stablecoins. The news means Binance will support four stablecoins, with tether USDT$0.9991, Paxos Standard (PAX) and TrueUSD (TUSD) already on the books.

Last month, U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase also announced it was adding USDC as its first stablecoin offering. Coinbase is one of the founding members of the CENTRE consortium, along with Circle.

Other exchanges including South Korea-based Korbit and Japan's Liquid have also recently made USDC available for trading on their platforms, according to a blog post by Circle on Tuesday.

More than 50 exchanges, protocols, platforms, applications and wallets now support the token, Circle said, adding that its circulating supply is currently at over 148 million.

Binance image via Shutterstock