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Coinbase, a leading San Francisco-based bitcoin trading venue, has announced the launch of the USDC Bootstrap Fund, to make it easier for developers creating solutions for decentralized finance (DeFi) to access funds for their projects. The USDC Bootstrap Fund is powered by smart contracts, according to a blog post on September 10, 2019.
Coinbase Fostering DeFi Growth with USDC
In an effort to eliminate the challenge of liquidity plaguing developers building solutions and protocols for the decentralized financial ecosystem, Coinbase has introduced the USDC Bootstrap Fund.
As stated in its blog post, since the launch of its USDC stablecoin in 2018, the digital asset has gained significant traction and has grown to become one of the most secure and trusted non-volatile cryptocurrencies in the world of DeFi.
Against that backdrop, Coinbase has decided to launch the USDC Bootstrap Fund, to encourage further growth in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Coinbase said:
“In our talks with numerous blockchain developer, we constantly heard how difficult it is to get liquidity for a new DeFi protocol. With the Bootstrap Fund, we aim to make it easier for devs to launch their protocol and create healthy, liquid marketplaces using USDC.”
Powered by Smart Contracts
Coinbase says the DeFi fund is designed to support developers by investing USDC directly in the project.
Unlike more traditional investments where funds are transferred directly from an angel investor or VC firm to a project organizer, the Coinbase Bootstrap Fund is powered by smart contract protocol, with “return provided by a counterparty.”
Coinbase has hinted that the primary objective of pumping in USDC into DeFi projects is to enable developers to create decentralized financial solutions that are safer, more reliant and accessible than existing traditional financial products.
To set the ball rolling, Coinbase claims it has invested $1 million worth of USDC each in two DeFi projects: dYdX, an open trading platform for cryptoassets, and Compound, a money market protocol.
Coinbase says the $2 million worth of USDC will be made available to any counterparty willing to provide crypto collateral and pay a floating interest rate on the borrowed funds.
In related news, earlier in April 2019, Coinbase launched its crypto debit card to enable seamless bitcoin payments.
More recently, Coinbase and bitcoin payment processor, BitPay joined forces with Lend a Hand Bahamas, to make it easier for victims of Hurricane Dorian to receive donations in cryptos.