Circle with Algorand Foundation to Support for USDC Stablecoin on Algorand Blockchain

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• June 25, 2020

Algorand Foundation, a governance and research organization that encourages participation, development, and innovation on the Algorand platform, announced a collaboration with Circle to bring a version of USDC to the Algorand network. Powered by USDC, Algorand will be the first blockchain with a stablecoin implementation.

 

Through this agreement, Circle will add support for digital dollar stablecoins that are interoperable with USDC. The integration will enable customers of the Circle APIs and Circle Business Accounts to move funds easily between traditional banks and card networks to digital dollars on the Algorand blockchain. Moreover, it will allow customers to have custody and manage accounts and payments activity via Circle APIs, and gain speed, security, and throughput benefits of Algorand’s blockchain.

 

USDC was developed as a joint venture comprising Circle and major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. It is issued by regulated financial institutions and backed by fully reserved assets, and redeemable on a 1:1 basis for U.S. dollars. USD Coin governed by Centre, a membership-based consortium that sets technical, policy, and financial standards for stablecoins.

 

Talking about Circle, it was the first company to receive a virtual currency BitLicense from the state of New York, and the first digital currency company awarded an e-Money Issuer license from the U.K. Currently, the Circle finance company uses blockchain technology for not only crypto transactions but for traditional transfers as well.

 

Partnership Aims to Create a Foundation for Various Financial Applications

 

Due to rising global demand for digital dollars, USDC has experienced notable growth, with a greater than 100% increase in USDC from pre-pandemic levels, with more than $940M in circulation.

Circle co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire stated that, “Growth in mainstream financial use cases is driving more demand for high-throughput payments and finance-optimized blockchain infrastructure.” He added that “The combination of USDC and Circle Platform Services with the Algorand blockchain will create a foundation for developing a wide range of scalable, secure, and compliant financial applications.”

 

Fangfang Chen, COO of the Algorand Foundation, stated: “As more financial institutions and enterprises look to build decentralized financial applications, they need a well-suited infrastructure and a compliant, regulated, and widely accepted stablecoin. Further, he expressed his views about the recent partnership with Circle, stating, “We are excited to partner with Circle to provide financial institutions with the tools they need to leverage the unique benefits of USDC and offer enterprise-grade solutions to build real-world use cases.”

 

The Road to Mass Adoption 

 

Blockchain, due to its shared ledger, transparency, immutability features, continues to be widely adopted across the world. Last week, a historic chess match between grandmaster Sergey Karjakin and Algorand founder Silvio Micali was recorded on ALGO blockchain. On March 2020, Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, unveiled three unique APIs for businesses that wish to benefit from USDC without technical complexities.

 

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