USD Coin (known by its ticker USDC) is a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 basis. Every unit of this cryptocurrency in circulation is backed up by $1 that is held in reserve, in a mix of cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. The Centre consortium, which is behind this asset, says USDC is issued by regulated financial institutions.
The stablecoin originally launched on a limited basis in September 2018. Put simply, USD Coin’s mantra is “digital money for the digital age” — and the stablecoin is designed for a world where cashless transactions are becoming more common.
Explaining the rationale behind USDC, Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville wrote: “We believe that an open internet of value exchange can transform and integrate the world more deeply, eventually eliminating artificial economic borders and enabling a more efficient and inclusive global marketplace that connects every person on the planet.”
In 2020, Circle and Coinbase collectively announced a major upgrade to USDC’s protocol and smart contract. The goal of these enhancements is to make it easier for USD Coin to be used for everyday payments, commerce and peer-to-peer transactions.
One of them concerns transparency — and giving users the assurance that they will be able to withdraw 1 USDC and receive $1 in return without any issues. To this end, it says a major accounting firm is tasked with verifying the levels of cash that are held in reserve, and ensuring this matches up with the number of tokens in circulation.
As you might expect, one of the most enthusiastic exchanges that offers USDC is Coinbase, given how the exchange was involved in this stablecoin’s creation. USD Coin can also be purchased and traded on Poloniex, Binance, OKEx and Bitfinex, as well as decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap.
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