Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is acquiring a minority stake in Circle Internet Financial, dissolving their partnership and bringing the stablecoin USD Coin fully in-house, while also adding native support for USDC on six additional blockchains, bringing the total to 15.
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's USD Coin (USDC) has experienced a significant drop in market cap due to factors such as the depegging event earlier this year, rising interest rates, and differences in issuance models compared to Tether's USDT stablecoin, which recently reached a new high in market cap at $83 billion.
Coinbase plans to list PayPal's new stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), on its platform, allowing users to trade the digital asset that aims to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar and is built on Ethereum.
Circle will soon launch a native version of its USD Coin (USDC) on the Base network, eliminating the need for the bridged version currently used by users.
Global payments firm Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement capability to include USD Coin (USDC) tokens issued on the Solana blockchain, allowing for faster and more efficient cross-border settlements.
Stablecoin issuer Tether has become one of the top buyers of US Treasury bills, with an exposure of $72.5 billion, ranking above several countries, according to Tether's CTO Paolo Ardoino. This highlights the relevance of USDT in emerging markets as a protection against inflation.
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.
Wormhole has integrated with Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, enabling the transfer of USDC between Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Optimism via Wormhole-based bridges, reducing liquidity issues and user confusion.
