We're thrilled to announce today that Circle and the Algorand Foundation have entered into a wide-ranging collaboration to bring fiat-backed stablecoin capability to Algorand, powered by USD Coin (USDC). Through this agreement, Circle will add support for digital dollar stablecoins that are interoperable with USDC, enabling customers of Circle Business Accounts and Circle APIs to easily move funds between traditional banks and card networks to digital dollars on the Algorand blockchain. Customers will be able to have custody and manage accounts and payments activity through Circle APIs, and gain the speed, security and throughput advantages of Algorand's blockchain.
USDC is the fastest-growing stablecoin, supported by hundreds of fintech companies in their products and services. With over $2.5B USDC issued to date, USDC has seen over $50B in transaction volume and settlements on public blockchains. In recent months, due to increasing global demand for digital dollars, USDC has experienced significant growth, with a greater than 100% increase in USDC in circulation from pre-pandemic levels, with more than $940M in circulation.
Today, the Centre Consortium also released details on a framework for multi-chain support on USDC so that other blockchains can leverage the foundation and standards that have been created behind USDC. Algorand will be the first blockchain with a stablecoin implementation based on that framework that is “Powered by USDC.”
To support a broad range of use cases, developers and ecosystems, Centre aims to allow its fiat-denominated digital currency standards to be used across multiple blockchains. By enabling stablecoins built on Centre’s protocols to be available on multiple blockchain ecosystems while still providing underlying interoperability, Centre will enable wider adoption and usage of digital dollars built around USDC.
The framework announced today commits to providing various levels of support to stablecoins built on Centre protocols commensurate with the obligations that developers must undertake. The ultimate goal is to foster even broader adoption of Centre’s standards while maximizing the security of customer funds and minimizing customer confusion. Centre will soon release additional details on different levels and types of integrations and the associated certification requirements and co-marketing benefits.
The Algorand and Circle collaboration announced today leverages this framework and brings the benefits of USDC to a second blockchain, which has demonstrated strong features and capabilities that are optimized for high-volume payments and financial applications. The Algorand digital dollar stablecoin implementation is Powered by USDC, and will be fully collateralized by fiat reserves, available through Circle’s issuing and redemption services, and will be able to be seamlessly swapped with ERC-20 USDC through an USDC token bridge that is being operated by Circle.
You can read the full announcement from Centre here.
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