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The second biggest stablecoin by market capitalization is already a multi-blockchain project. Soon, though, USDC will live almost everywhere. According to Coindesk, it will soon be available in, “Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, Tezos, and Tron.” That will bring the total to 14; since USDC is already functional in Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar, and Solana.
The biggest stablecoin, Tether or USDT, is only available in 8 of those. Currently, the most used stablecoin is Tron’s version of USDT.
Related Reading | Is USDC’s Billion Dollar Growth A Sign Crypto Smart Money Is Ditching Tether?
With that in mind, CENTRE said:
“We anticipate that USDC on these blockchain platforms and multichain protocols will further accelerate the use of the world’s fastest growing digital dollar currency.”
The consortium that runs USDC, CENTRE, is a joint venture between Coinbase and payments processor Circle. The information comes from, “a draft announcement from USDC administrator CENTRE obtained by CoinDesk.”
USDC market capitalization | Source: TradingView.com
What Is USDC And How Does It Work?
For this, we have to go back to the academy. Coinzilla informs us:
USDC is one of the fastest-growing stablecoins pegged 1 to 1 to the US Dollar.
What is more remarkable is that Circle, the company that developed the stablecoin, is actually holding the amount of money required for backing the USDC in circulation.
That’s definitely a shot at USDT. Tether’s audit and legal issues have been a topic of contention in the cryptocurrency community for a while now. Can they back all the Tether they’ve minted? A burning question that’s harder to answer than you’d think.
For what is worth, USDC’s April independent audit is on the public record and says:
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USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding less tokens allowed but not issued (218,807,037) and less blacklisted tokens = 14,697,267,257 USDC
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US Dollars held in custody accounts are at least equal or greater than the USDC tokens outstanding at the Report Date and Time.
Back to Coinzilla’s academy, the stablecoin’s characteristics are:
In essence, USD Coin is an ERC-20 token that functions through the Ethereum Network. Nowadays, USDC transactions can also be settled through Algorand, Solana, and Stellar’s infrastructures.
Since the launch of USDC 2.0, the payment process is simplified, the gas fees being paid directly in USDC.
Related Reading | Circle’s Stablecoin USDC Passes Independent Audit, Fully Backed by USD
Stablecoins Are Supposed To Rule The USA in 2021
The official love affair between the US government and stablecoins started last January, when Jeremy Allaire from Circle announced that, “the largest US banking regulator with new guidance allowing US banks to use public blockchains and dollar stablecoins as a settlement infrastructure in the US financial system.” According to him, “Decentralized, permissionless, open source and internet mediated software is literally becoming the foundation for not just the US financial system but for the global economy.”
3/ The new interpretive letter establishes that banks can treat public chains as infrastructure similar to SWIFT, ACH and FedWire, and stablecoins like USDC as electronic stored value. The significance of this can’t be understated.
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) January 4, 2021
Recently, Randal K. Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision, considerably raised the stakes:
In my judgment, we do not need to fear stablecoins. The Federal Reserve has traditionally supported responsible private-sector innovation. Consistent with this tradition, I believe that we must take strong account of the potential benefits of stablecoins, including the possibility that a U.S. dollar stablecoin might support the role of the dollar in the global economy. For example, a global U.S. dollar stablecoin network could encourage use of the dollar by making cross-border payments faster and cheaper, and it potentially could be deployed much faster and with fewer downsides than a CBDC.
Will stablecoins like USDC and USDT substitute the Digital Dollar project? Could they be an alternative to CBDCs? We’ll have to wait and see.
Featured Images by NeONBRAND on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView
