Circle Introduces Its Native Stablecoin ‘USD Coin’
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Fintech company Circle Internet Financial, also known as Circle, was excited to announce on 26 September 2018 that it is releasing its first stablecoin dubbed “USD Coin” or “USDC.
Circle joins other platforms that have launched their native stablecoins, fiat-backed crypto assets such as Tether and its USDT. The company founded by Goldman Sachs has reported today via a blog post that finally introduces its USDC token- a fully regulated tokenized US dollar. The announcement of Circle’s intentions was originally revealed on 16 May 2018.
Here’s what the company wrote:
“Today Circle and the CENTRE open source consortium introduced a service to tokenize US dollars and use those dollars over public blockchains on the internet: USD//Coin, also known as USDC. Individuals and institutions can enroll in this service to deposit US dollars from bank accounts, convert those dollars into tokens usable everywhere the internet reaches (subject to the token’s compliance controls), and redeem USDC tokens and cash out to bank accounts.”
Traditional digital assets vs stablecoins
Standard digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) aren’t considered by many the perfect options for virtual payment because of their volatile nature. A solution to these might be stablecoins, which are fully backed in pair with fiat currencies, mainly USD.
But even stablecoins aren’t perfect as Circle marks that these “have lacked financial and operational transparency, have operated in unregulated jurisdictions with unknown banking and audit partners, and have been built as closed-loop ecosystems and closed proprietary technologies.”
According to the company, Circle’s stablecoin USDC manages these issues by “providing detailed financial and operational transparency” as well as “operating within the regulated framework of US money transmission laws, reinforced by established banking partners and auditors.”
USDC tokens run on the Ethereum blockchain and are ERC-20 compliant. These will be minted, ‘issued, and burnt” as written in the company’s document. Circle’s token USDC is perfect for “crypto asset traders who are looking for a price-stable token to hedge in and out of trading positions and who desire high-speed and secure movement of fiat value across exchanges, and in and out of fiat banking,” reported the company.
These countries are allowed to “tokenize fiat currency into USDC” and reverse: “Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Republic of, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States (excluding HI, NY, MN), Holy See (Vatican City State), Vietnam.”
Author: Adriana Midrigan
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