Second-Largest Stablecoin USDC Transitions to the Stellar Blockchain
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and Circle have revealed that the US dollar coin (USDC) is live on the Stellar network.
Circle, the principal financial technology firm behind USDC development, is often cited as a regulatory-friendly organization. In a Tuesday blog post, the SDF explained that users could access the USDC on Stellar’s decentralized exchange and five Stellar-integrated wallets.
USDC can be traded with six stablecoin pairs across the whole of Stellar’s ecosystem of 9,000 assets. As for developers, they can accept payments at scale.
They can also issue programmable payouts, build marketplaces, and later on, receive a yield on top of their balance through a special free API service provided by Circle.
We and @circlepay are excited to announce that Stellar USDC is now live and immediately available on Stellar’s decentralized exchange, accessible to any Stellar account through integrated wallets, and tradable across Stellar’s ecosystem! https://t.co/jeARyW3Hhv — Stellar (@StellarOrg) February 2, 2021
Credit Card Giant Accelerated the Launch of USDC
The SDF and the Centre Consortium announced Stellar as an official chain of USDC in October 2020. This should reportedly lessen the dependence of the stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain.
The number of USDC tokens in circulation has doubled since credit card company Visa partnered with Circle to integrate USDC into its payment network of 60 million merchants.
Notably, over the last year, the market capitalization of USDC has surged over 1,000%. This is a more than a ten-fold rise. Meanwhile, the total number of operations on the Stellar network surpassed 1.5 billion. And last year, it witnessed 104% year-over-year growth, said the announcement.
Speaking to Forbes, Stellar Development Foundation’s Denelle Dixon stated that Stellar needs a strong, stable asset:
“We want to do cross border payments fast this is going to help provide the scale.”
A New Age
The SDF also disclosed that ecosystem companies FinClusive, Stably, and JST would provide liquidity and on/off ramps. In turn, six additional platforms, including Wyre, will connect USDC to their payment operations. The SDF recently invested $5 million in Wyre.
Commenting on these collaborations, Dixon said:
“This integration is going to be a powerhouse for growth in the Stellar ecosystem and a catalyst towards achieving our mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system. It presents significant business opportunities for both new and existing companies to build on the respective strengths of USDC and Stellar.”
Following his statement, Jeremy Allaire, Chairman, and CEO of Circle, emphasized that Stellar is creating “a new generation of financial applications:”
“Having a trusted and transparent dollar stablecoin, like USDC, in the market and available across Circle’s suite of API services for payments and treasury operations will help accelerate the pace and scale of these innovations”
USDC Stablecoin Goes Live on the Stellar Blockchain
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Key Takeaways USDC, the second-largest stablecoin on the market, has been launched on the Stellar blockchain.
The USDC stablecoin can be used in Stellar’s ecosystem of dApps and is tradable with over 9,000 digital assets.
Businesses and developers can access Stellar USDC via integration with the Circle’s API Services.
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One of the leading dollar-pegged stablecoins, USD Coin (USDC), has gone live on the Stellar blockchain.
USDC Added to Stellar Ecosystem
Developers building on the Stellar blockchain can now make use of the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin.
With the announcement, Stellar is the fourth blockchain to support the stablecoin, following Ethereum, Algorand, and Solana.
Stellar allows cross-border transactions with settlement times within five seconds. As such, it will facilitate fast USDC transactions. It will also allow users to make USDC transactions with negligible fees, whereas Ethereum’s gas fees can be quite expensive.
USDC is the second-largest stablecoin after Tether (USDT). It was launched in 2018 by CENTRE, the result of a partnership between the crypto companies Circle and Coinbase. Currently, there are $6 billion of USDC tokens in circulation.
New Uses for USDC
The integration brings instant value to the Stellar ecosystem and will create new opportunities for USDC.
“Businesses and developers will benefit from Circle’s scale and liquidity to deliver on the kinds of products and use cases the Stellar was designed for, especially cross-border payments and tokenization,” Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon stated in a media release.
The stablecoin will be available across all projects within Stellar’s ecosystem. It will be tradable with over 9,000 digital assets, according to the Stellar Development Foundation.
Disclosure: The author did not hold crypto mentioned in this article at the time of press.
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Luno crypto platform adds US dollar stablecoin
Luno, one of South Africa’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms has announced the addition of USDC, one of the most secure stablecoin on the market to its current offering for users.
Luno adds US dollar stablecoin to its current offering
In an official press statement, Marcus Swanepoel, CEO, and founder of Luno comments on the addition of arguably the most stablecoin on the market.
“Broadening our platform with the addition of USDC is an exciting move for us and our users. With Bitcoin and others, including Ethereum, reaching all-time highs, cryptocurrencies are in the limelight and the opportunity is certainly ripe for investors and traders to take advantage.
What does this mean for Luno customers?
As USDC is stablecoin that is tied to the US dollar, it provides Luno customers the opportunity to store their wealth in the world’s reserve currency. The US dollar has showcased consistent dependability when compared to volatile currencies across the 40 countries in which Luno operates.
US stable coin will be offered in addition to the current offerings of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ripple XRP.
According to Luno, the coin will be available for instate buy.
Benefits of the US stablecoin
Aside from offering stability, US stablecoin has the following benefits for interested traders:
US stablecoin is one of the safest and best-regulated stablecoin currently on the market
It is fully collateralised, which means that its reserves are held on a one-to-one ratio with the US dollar. Essentially this means that for every one USDC, the original issuer of the coin holds 1 US dollar in collateral
Records of its reserves are audited monthly by Grant Thorton, a leading account firm
Swanepoel points out that stablecoins are less volatile than cryptocurrencies because their prices is backed in a ratio of 1:1 to the US dollar.
‘”Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum remain volatile currency options. The introduction of USDC empowers our users to hedge against volatility during market dips and ensures they can quickly and easily access funds on the platform when they want to trade or invest.”
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Featured image: Marcus Swanepoel , Luno CEO and co-founder (Supplied)