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Stablecoin issuer Circle launches business accounts for USDC transactions

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Circle

More businesses are expressing interest in accepting cryptocurrency payments and holding digital assets in their strategic reserves.

USD Coin (USDC) operator Circle has launched a new account service aimed at helping businesses transact in cryptocurrencies — potentially opening the door to wider mainstream adoption of digital assets.

The new business-centric Circle Account allows enterprise clients to deposit, withdraw, receive and store cryptocurrencies and have all payments settled in the USDC stablecoin, the company announced Wednesday. Circle's new account features give businesses the ability to seamlessly integrate crypto payments into their operations and use digital assets as collateral. Account holders can send and receive USDC across eight blockchains, including Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Tron, Hedera, Avalanche and Flow.

Since the launch of Circle Accounts in 2020, the number of active users has increased by 213%, the company said. “Businesses may adopt USDC for any number of reasons to create added efficiencies for their operations,” a Circle spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Some drivers for USDC growth are increased payment use cases, cross-border transactions and the adoption of assets like USDC as a “flight to safety,” especially in countries where the local currency is suffering from a valuation loss.”

Circle Accounts can also be used by accredited investors to participate in the company’s stablecoin lending program . Known as Circle Yield, the program offers investors between 4% and 6% in annual returns. Circle says that its Yield product is “overcollateralized” with Bitcoin (BTC), which means its BTC holdings exceed the amount needed to cover potential losses in the event of default.

Yes, they do.

Recent marriage between USDC operator @circlepay and Concord Acquisition Corp results in a $9 billion revaluation and plans to enter the NYSE.https://t.co/k9GgxkARqu
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 18, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, Circle saw its valuation double to $9 billion earlier this month after it revised a planned merger agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company founded in 2020. Circle and Concord are expected to finalize their merger by Dec. 8, 2022.

Circle’s USDC is the second-largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization and is among the fastest-growing. USDC currently has a market capitalization of $52.7 billion compared to Tether’s $79.4 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Circle’s valuation doubles to $9B following revised merger agreement with Concord

February 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

The Circle-Concord business combination will create a new company that plans to list publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.

USD Coin (USDC) operator Circle has seen its valuation double to $9 billion after the company revised its merger agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded in 2020.

Circle announced Thursday that it had terminated its previous business combination terms with Concord and reached a new agreement that is expected to be finalized by December 8, 2022, with the possibility of it being extended to January 31, 2023. As Cointelegraph reported, Circle and Concord first announced their merger plans in July 2022.

A Circle spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the new agreement reflects a commitment from both parties to move the deal forward after it became clear that the original closing date wouldn’t be met. They explained:

“It was clear that the original deal would not be closed within the time parameters of the original business combination agreement (April 3, 2022). As part of the negotiation to extend the deal, the value of Circle was updated to reflect improved financial performance and the competitive position of USDC, along with a new initial outside date, December 8, 2022.”

Consistent with the original agreement, Circle remains committed to becoming a publicly-traded company once the business merger is finalized and a new company is designated. That new company will acquire both Circle and Concord and become a publicly-traded business to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRCL.”

“[A]lthough we continue to work diligently toward completion of this transaction, the timing will ultimately depend on many factors outside of our control, including the SEC’s review of our registration statement on form S-4,” the spokesperson said.

50 BILLION USDC (w/ thread below) pic.twitter.com/5FEaPmXjup
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) February 1, 2022

Circle has carved out a strong reputation in the cryptocurrency industry for its emphasis on regulatory compliance and for proving the full backing of its USDC reserves. Earlier this month, Circle minted its 50 billionth USD Coin, second only to Tether's (USDT) in terms of stablecoin market capitalization. With a current value of $52.6 billion, USDC accounts for over 29% of the stablecoin market, according to CoinMarketCap.

*USDC's market dominance has grown significantly over the past year. Source: Dune Analytics*

The stablecoin market is collectively worth $180.1 billion, up from around $10 billion in mid-2020.

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Circle’s USDC stablecoin gobbles Tether’s market share with 50B milestone

February 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

The 50 billion USDC circulating milestone has increased Circle’s share of the stablecoin market to almost 30%.

The world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization keeps on growing as it erodes the dominance of the current leader, Tether.

The stablecoin landscape is a constantly-shifting dynamic but one trend has become clear over the past year or so — Tether’s dominance is diminishing.

Its main rival, Circle, has just reached a milestone of 50 billion USDC in circulation according to CoinGecko and a Feb. 1 tweet by company co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire.

50 BILLION USDC (w/ thread below) pic.twitter.com/5FEaPmXjup
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) February 1, 2022

Allaire said that while this is a massive number, “it's the massive growth and ecosystem around it that tells the broader story.” He added that USDC has seen 10,000% growth over the past two years.

The total stablecoin supply currently stands at $177 billion, equating to around 9.7% of the total crypto market capitalization. Tether commands around 45% of that total, whereas Circle now takes a 29% share as the gap between them closes. For reference, this time last year Tether had a dominance of 74% with Circle taking just 16% of the stablecoin pie.

Circle’s stablecoin market capitalization expanded by 987% in 2021 according to CoinGecko. Comparatively, Tether’s supply saw less than a third of that growth with 275% over the same period.

According to the Circle CEO, the stablecoin network saw $2.5 trillion in on-chain transactions and 4.6 million active wallet addresses in 2021 alone. USDC runs on eight different blockchains, is supported by 200 protocols, and can be traded in 180 countries on 34 exchanges. Tether is still the dominant force in the stablecoin ecosystem, but the Goldman Sachs-backed digital payment company Circle is closing in fast.

As reported by Cointelegraph on Jan. 19, the USDC supply has already flipped USDT on the Ethereum network. Tether supply is currently split mostly between Ethereum and Tron with around 39 billion and 36 billion USDT on each network respectively and the rest on a handful of others such as Solana, Omni, and Algorand according to its transparency report.

On Jan. 31, Circle announced that it had expanded its multi-chain ecosystem by adding support for Dapper Labs’ Flow network.

USDC flips Tether on the Ethereum network

January 19, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle

The total supply for USDC on Ethereum has surpassed that of Tether, putting USDT in second place on Ethereum for the first time.

Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) has reached a major milestone by surpassing Tether (USDT) in total supply on the Ethereum network.

USDC’s current supply on Ethereum as of writing is 40.06 billion tokens, just ahead of USDT’s supply of 39.82 billion.

Tether has been the most popular stablecoin since at least 2016, after originally sharing the market with BitUSD and NuBits (USNBT) stablecoins when it launched in late 2014. At that time, USDT ran on Omni. As the latter two fell into obscurity due to losing their dollar peg and shedding users, USDC emerged in 2018 as a more transparent and more regulated competitor to Tether, which has been under a cloud for years due to doubts over its backing.

Although USDT is still the most popular stablecoin with a total supply of 78.5 billion, nearly 50% of the supply or 38.7 billion tokens, is on the Tron network. USDT can also be found on BSC, Solana, Huobi ECO Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and 13 other chains or layer 2 solutions.

The current total supply for USDC is 45.7 billion tokens across 21 chains or layer-two solutions.

Doubts over Tether’s backing has caused its public image to decline over the years. Controversy has plagued the company over how the stablecoin is collateralized and how its reserve funds are managed.

The issuance of two Consolidated Reserves Reports about Tether's financial reserves from accounting firm Moore Cayman in 2021 did little to quell the doubters. In its latest financial report, Tether revealed that it holds $30.8 billion in unspecific commercial paper in addition to other assets backing USDT.

Circle has been more transparent about its reserves, though not to the extent some critics demand. In Aug. 2021, Coinbase President Emilie Choi said that the USDC reserves backing the second largest stablecoin in the market would shift entirely to cash and US Treasury bonds. This did indeed happen by Oct. 27 2021 according to an Independent Accountant’s Report done by Grant Thornton.

Coinbase is a close partner with Circle, a digital payments service, which helped launch USDC in Oct. 2018. Circle is backed by Bitmain, China Everbright Bank, and eight others.

It has been supportive of efforts to solidify a regulatory framework for all stablecoins. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire supported a Nov. 2021 Biden Administration proposal to treat stablecoin issuers similarly to banks. Allaire also attended a Congressional hearing with several top crypto industry leaders in Dec. 2021 to discuss policy direction with the Financial Services Committee.

Centralized stablecoins USDT, USDC, and BUSD are currently the top three in their category, however decentralized stablecoin options have begun to proliferate.

TerraUSD (UST) is the fourth largest stablecoin, but is the fastest growing since Nov. 2021. Since then, it has surpassed Magic Internet Money (MIM) and DAI (DAI), and achieved a $10.7 billion market cap.

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Circle

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