$USDC

USDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin created to maintain its value close to the US dollar (USD) at a ratio of 1:1. That is, 1 USDC is equivalent to 1 dollar. It was created in 2018 by the Centre consortium, founded by Coinbase and Circle.

Characteristics of USDC:

Backed by Dollar: For each USDC issued, 1 dollar (or equivalent in low-risk securities) is kept in reserve.

Transparency: The reserves are regularly audited, providing more confidence to the investor.

Blockchain-based: It operates on multiple networks (Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, among others), facilitating fast and cheap transfers.

Uses: Arbitrage, protection against crypto volatility, international money movement, payments, and use in DeFi (decentralized finance).

What is a good currency pair with USDC?

The choice of a good trading pair for USDC depends on the objective:

1. Liquidity and popularity

USDC/USDT: Pair between the two main stablecoins, widely used for arbitrage or transferring value between blockchains.

USDC/BTC: Allows buying/selling Bitcoin using USDC.

USDC/ETH: Same logic, but with Ethereum, quite useful due to being one of the pairs with the highest volume.

2. For yield in DeFi:

USDC/DAI: Popular pair in liquidity pools; both are stablecoins and have low volatility.

USDC/ETH and USDC/BTC: Pools with these assets tend to yield more, but also carry more risk due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies.

3. For protection and ease of entry/exit in the market:

USDC/USD: On exchanges that allow direct withdrawals to a bank account in dollars.

USDC/Real (BRL): If using Brazilian exchanges.