Circle Launches USDC on Flow Blockchain

February 1, 2022 Bitcoin.com

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.

Stablecoin Issuance Surged Last Year — UST Saw the Largest 12-Month Increase

January 30, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Whale Watch: A Deep Dive Into the Concentrations of Large Crypto Holders

January 28, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Opens Position in Company Merging With Stablecoin Giant Circle: Report

January 16, 2022 The Daily Hodl

Stablecoin USDC’s ERC20 Issuance Surpasses USDT’s Total Supply on Ethereum

January 15, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Cathie Wood’s ARK ETF reportedly buys 6.93M shares of SPAC merging with Circle

January 15, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Ark Invest's latest foray into the crypto sector focuses on stablecoin issuer Circle, which announced plans to merge with SPAC Concord Acquisition Corp.

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has reportedly purchased 6.93 million shares of the special purchase acquisition company, or SPAC, that is merging with Circle, for $70.6 million through the company’s ARK Fintech Innovation exchange-traded fund (ETF). This purchase would represent a new position for the ETF, according to MarketWatch.

Ark Invest's ETFs have a history of bold purchases within the tech industry as indicated by their move to buy $80 million in Robinhood shares after the prices dipped back in October 2021. Wood is also bullish on crypto despite passing on buying the first Bitcoin futures ETF that same month.

Circle is the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), which is currently the second-largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization. Circle announced its intentions to go public in July 2021 through a SPAC with Concord Acquisition Corp in a merger that would see the company valued at $4.5 billion.

The merger was originally planned to finalize by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, with the company being listed on the NYSE with the ticker “CRCL.”

The move to go public came about as a response to the increasing concern posed by regulators regarding stablecoins. Regardless, the move was applauded overall by the crypto industry. Vladimir Vishnevskiy, co-founder of Swiss wealth management firm St. Gotthard Fund Management AG, noted as such and said; “[USDC] has been around since 2014, and is another example of an established player being rewarded for their input into the ecosystem.

Stablecoins are still under regulatory scrutiny in the United States as lawmakers question the market's transparency and reserve backing. U.S. lawmakers are currently looking to introduce new legislation on crypto within the coming weeks.

USDC