Cryptocurrency platform startup Circle has overhauled its network to advance mainstream trading, while its stablecoin USDC has surpassed three billion in circulation, growing by nearly 500 percent in 2020.
“At the core of Circle’s latest platform upgrade is a new digital currency-native treasury account infrastructure, Digital Dollar Accounts, which empowers businesses of all sizes to store value natively in digital currency while maintaining compatibility with legacy electronic money and payment networks,” Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, said in a blog post on Wednesday (Dec. 9).
USDC circulation is up 400 million since January and has handled in excess of $200 billion in on-chain payment volume, according to David Puth, chief executive officer of Centre Consortium, which was founded by Circle and Coinbase.
“The accelerated growth of USDC over the course of this year is the result of our active work to establish an open standard for fiat digital currency on the internet,” Puth said in a statement. “This includes building a governance framework to evolve technical, policy, compliance, security and operational standards for the issuing and use of fiat digital currencies and stablecoins.”
Numerous currencies and blockchains can utilize Circle’s new Digital Dollar Accounts infrastructure and can help customers “leapfrog into truly native digital money, digital assets and treasury infrastructure that is, in fact, built on open internet infrastructure,” Allaire said.
By early 2021, Circle expects to roll out an upgraded account dashboard to power multi-chain USDC transfers that will offer integrated reporting, analytics and account usage.
Visa teamed up with USDC earlier this month to offer a digital currency credit card, one of 25 digital currency wallet companies onboarded by Visa’s Fast Track program. Cuy Sheffield, head of the crypto at Visa, said this is the first business card that will make the balance of USDC available for spending.
Circle’s Allaire said in a September PYMNTS interview that electronic currencies are poised to become widely used to conduct business in P2P, C2B and B2B commerce. He said the public blockchain will take digital dollar stablecoins mainstream.
