USD Coin (USDC) is a cryptocurrency stablecoin which is issued by Circle. It is pegged to the United States dollar, and is distinct from a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Usage
USDC operates as an Ethereum ERC-20 token and is also available on several other blockchain platforms such as Base and Polygon Visa initiated a pilot program to send USDC via the Solana blockchain to payment firms Worldpay and Nuvei, who could then transfer payment to merchants.
Assets and Reserves
Until mid-2021,
Circle stated that each USDC was backed by either one U.S. dollar in
reserve or by other "approved investments", though the specifics of
these investments were not disclosed. In June 2021, Circle updated its
website wording from "backed by US dollars" to "backed by fully reserved
assets" As of 2020, USDC reserves were regularly attested (but not audited) by Grant Thornton, LLP,and as of 2021, the monthly attestations could be found on the Centre Consortium's website.
In December 2024, Forbes reported that USDC had $41 billion in assets under management.
