Summary: Coinbase and Circle have dissolved the Centre Consortium due to regulatory clarity issues surrounding stablecoins, with Coinbase taking an equity stake in Circle and Circle assuming enhanced responsibilities for the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin; Binance.US partners with MoonPay to use Tether (USDT) as its new "base asset" for transactions, while Binance faces challenges with fiat withdrawals in Europe; Shopify now accepts USDC payments on its platform, and Solana Pay plans to add additional altcoins; China launches a blockchain-powered data exchange with over 300 participating enterprises.
Circle, the company behind the USD Coin (USDC), plans to expand the support for its stablecoin to six additional blockchains in the next two months, potentially making it the most widely accessible stablecoin and fueling its adoption in various industries.
Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle's USDC stablecoin to the Solana blockchain, aiming to enhance the speed of cross-border payment transactions and become one of the first major financial institutions to use the Solana network at scale for settlements.
Circle, the company behind the stablecoin USDC, faced a crisis when $3.3 billion of its reserves were stuck at Silicon Valley Bank, causing USDC to lose its $1 peg and lose market share to rival stablecoin Tether, revealing the challenges and shortcomings of Circle's ambitions to reshape the financial system with its dollar-backed token.
USDC stablecoin issuer Circle has responded to proposed changes to the EU's financial crime policies, expressing concerns about the lack of clarity in the terminology used and arguing that technology does not necessarily increase money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is focusing on Asia as it sees stablecoins as a way to improve cross-border payments for businesses in the region.
Stablecoin issuer Circle argued in a court filing that tokens pegged to a sovereign currency, like the US dollar, are not securities, amid the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuit against Binance, highlighting the potential implications for stablecoins as a whole.
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial has released Perimeter Protocol, an open-source smart contract codebase that allows for the development of tokenized credit markets, enabling various credit use cases such as invoice factoring, payroll advances, instant settlement, and credit trading for institutional investors. This move comes as the tokenization of real-world assets gains momentum, with tokenized assets predicted to grow to a $5 trillion market in the next five years. Circle aims to leverage the protocol to enhance the utility of its stablecoin USDC and Euro-pegged token EURC in decentralized finance (DeFi) credit platforms.
The French central bank views central bank digital currency as the catalyst for improving cross-border payments and the foundation of a new international monetary system.
Digital currencies, particularly payment stablecoins, have the potential to upgrade America's financial system and benefit families and businesses by making transactions easier, faster, and cheaper, but this can only be achieved if Washington passes stablecoin legislation that prioritizes financial stability and consumer safety.
Stablecoin issuer Tether plans to publish real-time data on the reserves backing its largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT, by 2024, according to a Bloomberg report.
