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USD Coin (USDC), the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization, will launch on the Stellar blockchain in Q1 2021, according to an Oct. 15 announcement.
Circle, the first issuer of USDC, will bring the stablecoin’s new version to its suite of API services.
Its multichain swap API tool, for instance, allows easily swapping USDC tokens between different blockchains. So far, USD Coin is supported on Ethereum and Algorand.
USDC is currently ranked as the 13th largest stablecoin by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap data. Its circulating supply has mushroomed by over 627 percent in 2020.
The fully-audited and regulatory compliant stablecoin was jointly rolled out by Circle and Coinbase back in October 2018.
The two cryptocurrency unicorns formed the CENTRE consortium, with USDC only being its first initiative.
Its end goal is to establish a blockchain-based standard for fiat currencies on the internet.
Denelle Dixon, the CEO of the Stellar Foundation, touts the partnership as “a big development” for Stellar while adding that it will allow USDC to expand into remittances and international settlements:
“With Stellar's unique focus on cross-border payments, transactional use cases, and our anchor model, we’re positioned to help Centre achieve their vision for fiat-backed digital currency and to help USDC further penetrate the financial stack by expanding from trading and DeFi into remittances and B2B cross-border payments. Not to mention that USDC users will benefit from Stellar’s near-instant settlement and transaction fees at fractions of a cent.”
Stellar was launched by Mt. Gox founder and ex-Ripple CTO Jed McCaleb back in July 2014 to act as a middleman for cross-border payments in fiat currencies.