Circle Says USDC Reserve Backed Entirely in Cash and Short-Dated US Treasuries

On May 13, Circle’s chief financial officer Jeremy Fox-Geen published a blog post called “How to Be Stable,” following the aftermath of Terra’s stablecoin implosion. Circle’s CFO explained that since usd coin’s inception, the stablecoin aims to be “the most transparent and trusted dollar digital currency.”

Terra’s Stablecoin De-Pegging Incident Has Cast a Spotlight on the Entire Stablecoin Economy

For a few years now, stablecoin assets have been a popular hedging vehicle among many participants within the cryptocurrency community. In more recent times, stablecoins are being loaned out in great numbers in order to gather interest and high yield returns. In the early days, stablecoins were centralized projects and these days there are a few decentralized and algorithmic stablecoin tokens among the giants.

Tether (USDT) and usd coin (USDC) are the two largest stablecoin projects in terms of market valuation. Both of them are centralized, which means the company guarantees the stablecoins are redeemable for the $1 parity by holding reserves that cover the funds in circulation. Even before Terra’s stablecoin de-pegging event, more confidence has been placed in the top two stablecoins because they are centralized.

Three days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the stablecoin shuffle after the recent editorial our newsdesk published, showing that for the first time in history, three stablecoins entered the crypto top ten. That is still the case today, except that terrausd (UST) has been knocked out of the top-ten largest crypto market caps and the stablecoin BUSD has replaced the token’s position. After the terrausd (UST) implosion, Circle Financial’s CEO Jeremy Allaire has been speaking to the press about what makes USDC different, and he believes there needs to be “more regulatory framework around stablecoins.”

We are ramping up our efforts around trust and transparency with USDC, so stay tuned for more, but getting started here's a new blog post from @circlepay CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen, as well as a thread below breaking it down: https://t.co/SYNpwYxUif

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) May 13, 2022

Circle CEO Says Company Is Ramping Up Trust and Transparency Efforts, Firm Says ‘USDC Is Always Redeemable 1:1 for US Dollars’

On Friday, Allaire tweeted that Circle was “ramping up our efforts” when it comes to USDC “trust and transparency.” Allaire also shared a blog post written by the firm’s CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen, who gives a summary of what Allaire means about transparency. Fox-Geen’s blog post explains “USDC has always been backed by the equivalent value of U.S. dollar-denominated assets.” The CFO further notes that the funds are held by America’s leading financial institutions such as Bank of New York Mellon and Blackrock. The Circle executive’s report adds:

The USDC reserve is held entirely in cash and short-dated U.S. government obligations, consisting of U.S. Treasuries with maturities of 3 months or less.

Circle’s CFO detailed that the company has been publishing monthly attestations from the leading accounting firm Grant Thornton International. “The USDC reserve is worth at least as much as the number of USDC in circulation, providing reputable third-party assurance of this fact to the USDC ecosystem,” Fox-Geen summarized in the blog post. “USDC is always redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars,” the Circle executive adds. The blog post concludes that there are thousands of projects and entities that support and facilitate the exchange of USDC in 190 countries.

Yes, @DoveyWan, we would ultimately like to see Cash held at the Fed. https://t.co/MHTjjveveQ

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) May 15, 2022

While Terra’s Algorithmic Stablecoin Shuddered, a Few Decentralized Fiat-Pegged Tokens Still Exist, Many Crypto Supporters Believe They Are Needed

Meanwhile, there are a few decentralized and algorithmic stablecoin assets that exist today like LUSD, DAI, FEI, MIM, USDV, and USDD. For instance, the Ethereum-based Makerdao project leverages an over-collateralization method to back the stablecoin DAI. Tron recently introduced an algorithmic stablecoin token called USDD, and a blockchain project called Vader has a native algorithmic stablecoin called USDV. Another stablecoin asset, dubbed magic internet money (MIM), is built on top of Avalanche (AVAX) and is issued by the decentralized lending platform Abracadabra.

This is an important point!

LUSD is technically an algorithmic stablecoin.

Not all algorithmic stables are created equal.

We need to be careful with how we explain these concepts to the noobs with guns who are trying to tyrannize us. https://t.co/GHe3lH4bt1

— Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) May 15, 2022

Decentralized and algorithmic stablecoin proponents believe they are needed among the centralized heavyweights like USDT and USDC. Supporters of such assets think that centralized stablecoins are subject to the same failure, and others believe decentralized and algorithmic stablecoins trump centralized models because they cannot be frozen by the issuer. Despite these benefits, centralized stablecoins have ruled the roost and crypto users, at least for now, have more confidence in them.

What do you think about centralized stablecoins and Circle’s recent blog post about transparency and the token’s reserve backing? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.