In a significant move within the crypto realm, Circle, the company behind USD Coin (USDC), said it will extend support for its stablecoin to six more blockchains in the next two months.
Based on a joint release by Coinbase and Circle, USDC, already available on nine blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Stellar, Tron, Flow, Algorand, Hedera and Solana, will be rolled out on additional chains.
While the release does not mention names, earlier reports from Circle suggest that Base, NEAR, Optimism, Polkadot, Polygon PoS, and Cosmos will be the new integrations between September and October. Consequently, USDC will be supported on at least 15 blockchains.
USDC was designed to maintain a 1-to-1 peg with the US Dollar. Albeit being the second largest stablecoin, it has seen a reduction in market share to Tether. The shifts were fueled by fears associated with USD reserves on the failed Silicon Valley Bank.
The integration of six new blockchains will be a major step in the growth of USDC, perhaps a catalyst for more stablecoin adoption.
The new developments come from a collaboration between Coinbase and Circle, with the former securing an undisclosed minority interest stake in the latter. This partnership effectively disbanded the Center Consortium, originally tasked with issuing USDC. Subsequently, Circle will move the entire governance and issuance of USDC in-house.
The two entities believe the main objective of stablecoins is wide availability, stability, and usability 24-7. As such, the statement notes that,
“Support for new chains allows USDC to better serve a growing number of businesses, applications, and developer communities who are choosing USDC as the on-chain dollar.”
Tether (USDT) currently operates across 14 blockchains. Paxos, another famous stablecoin, is only available on the Ethereum network. Therefore, USDC could become the most widely accessible stablecoin in the upcoming two months.
The stablecoin market has been seeing massive buzz in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a major payment service provider, PayPal, in partnership with Paxos, introduced its novel stablecoin, PYUSD. Despite mixed reactions initially, PYUSD has been settling in the markets just fine, even getting an endorsement from a US legislator.
The new move by Coinbase and Circle signals a thriving stablecoin market whose use cases can extend beyond just crypto trading to foreign exchange, international settlement, and financial inclusion.
