A stablecoin – founded by a partnership between Circle and Coinbase known as the Centre Consortium – whose price is tied 1:1 to the US dollar.
Mission
Intended as digital money for a digital age, USDC is designed for an increasingly cashless world.
Launched in 2018, its goal is to be accepted by as many wallets, exchanges, service providers and dApps as possible.
Use-cases
In a similar way to fellow stablecoin Tether, USDC serves as a place where crypto investors can shelter from the extreme volatility of other cryptocurrencies.
It also allows businesses to accept payments in digital assets. Its coins are ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which allows them to be integrated with Ethereum-based applications.
Founders
The companies behind USDC – peer-to-peer payment services firm Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase – are regulated by financial authorities and backed by institutional investors.
Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville have written of their ambition to realise “an open internet of value exchange [which] can transform and integrate the world more deeply… connecting every person on the planet”.
Economics
The Centre Consortium holds the dollar equivalent of every unit of the cryptocurrency in reserve, either cash or short-term US Treasury bonds.
There is no limit on the number of USDC which can be created.