This week Senator Schumer made it clear he would pass crypto legislation this year. Now, Presidential candidates are staking out their positions and policies on crypto. This is the moment for the US to seize dollar digital currency leadership. A policy video for NOW.
1/ Breaking major news from US Treasury OCC, the largest US banking regulator (
@USOCC
), with new guidance allowing US banks to use public blockchains and dollar stablecoins as a settlement infrastructure in the US financial system.
Update thread on USDC
We were heartened to see the US government and financial regulators take crucial steps to mitigate risks extending from the fractional banking system.
100% of deposits from SVB are secure and will be available at banking open tomorrow.
White House Exec Order and U.S. Government Strategy for Digital Assets -- a thread with thoughts; TLDR = this is a watershed moment for crypto, digital assets, and Web 3, akin to the 1996/1997 whole of government wakeup to the commercial internet. (1/7)
BREAKING NEWS: US
@federalreserve
and
@USTreasury
announce that US Government will adopt USDC as new Dollar Digital Currency standard, accelerating US role in global digital currency.
I’m more bullish than I have ever been about crypto.
I have been building
@Circle
for over 11 years, and at no time have I been more optimistic than right now.
I also believe that the overwhelming majority of people have an extremely narrow and limited understanding of what’s
1/6 Major USDC news today -
@Visa
has become the first major payments network to support USDC as a native currency and settlement system on its network. This is massive news, and marks a major turning point in mainstream adoption of crypto.
1/ CIRCLE LAUNCHES EURO COIN: Today, we announced our 2nd major fiat-backed stablecoin, Euro Coin, which went live on Ethereum mainnet, and will be available to mint and redeem on June 30th.
BREAKING NEWS:
@Circle
announces that USDC and EURC are now available under new EU stablecoin laws; Circle is the first global stablecoin issuer to be compliant with MiCA. Circle is now natively issuing both USDC and EURC to European customers effective July 1st.
Details
BREAKING NEWS:
@circle
has announced that we are moving our Global HQ to New York City, building out a flagship space on one of the top floors of 1 World Trade Center, an historically important landmark in standing for American global economic leadership. Details below the
1/5 A message to US and Western Policymakers on how to think about China's approach to crypto and blockchain. China opposes the Western system of values built on openness, transparency, privacy, free market competition and so forth.
3/ The new interpretive letter establishes that banks can treat public chains as infrastructure similar to SWIFT, ACH and FedWire, and stablecoins like USDC as electronic stored value. The significance of this can’t be understated.
Simple question. Where/what are the other massive offshore, unregulated, opaque, unaudited (by major public accounting firms) firms and pools of assets in crypto? If we're going to rip the bandaid off, let's do it.
1/ Some initial reflections on the FTX and Binance situation, and what impact we think this has on Circle, USDC and crypto more generally. These are fresh thoughts and will evolve. First, seeing a major industry peer and their loyal customer base impacted like this is god awful.
Circle’s USDC operations will open for business on Monday morning, including with new automated settlement via our new partnership with Cross River Bank.
1/ As part of our commitment to increasing transparency and disclosure around USDC, today we're publishing our first monthly breakdown of the USDC reserve assets, by each and every Treasury Bond and list of cash reserve custodians.
4/ Decentralized, permissionless, open source and internet mediated software is literally becoming the foundation for not just the US financial system but for the global economy.
5/ We are on a path towards all major economic activity being executed on-chain. It is tremendous to see such forward thinking support from the largest regulator of national banks in the United States.
Breakthrough use-case for $USDC -- with US Govt permission, we partnered with the exiled govt of Venezuela (
@jgauido
) and Airtm
@theairtm
to distribute aid to people and healthcare workers in Venezuela. Stablecoins now a tool of US foreign policy --
Welcome to the dollar stablecoin party,
@Ripple
. It is encouraging to see more companies taking a compliance-first approach to building onchain dollars. Congrats on taking the plunge!
USDC is coming to Japan - Circle and SBI Holdings begin partnership combining USDC distribution, banking and Web3 tech proliferation for the Japan market. Official announcement here, my take on this below:
Why is this such a big deal?
In June of this
6/ This paves the way for the use of leading dollar digital currencies such as USDC as a mainstream payment medium for all forms of payments and settlement, and helps put the US in a leadership position in embracing the power of public blockchains.
I am super impressed with
@JupiterExchange
on
@solana
. Truly excellent UX and features. An example of maturation in a range of infrastructure -- wallets, usdc on solana liquidity and availability, and product execution.
1/20 Here's a deep dive on what's really going on, including the behind the scenes, with the Treasury FinCen proposed rule on "unhosted wallets" and new record-keeping and reporting rules. Hang on to your hat.
USDC Liquidity. Over the past month, we've issued $5B USDC, and have redeemed $6.6B USDC.
USDC banking is public and transparent, with 24/7/365 mint/burn, and wire settlement with nearly 90 countries.
USDC reserves are attested by Deloitte every month, and all of our T-bill
For those of us in the crypto community, IMHO this E.O. should be viewed as the single biggest opportunity to engage with policy makers on the issues that matters. The proverbial doors of policymakers are WIDE OPEN, this is now a NATIONAL conversation in the U.S. (7/7)
1/7 Today, we announced that we have signed definitive agreements for a transaction that will result in Circle becoming a publicly listed company on the NYSE trading under the ticker CRCL.
1/ A long thread on the rapid growth of USDC on Solana, and why it matters in the future of payments, banking and capital markets. First, in just a week, USDC on Solana jumped from 1B to 2B in circulation. Wow!
Chairman Powell today - Dollar Stables and future CBDCs will co exist. We agree. But let’s get behind the digital dollars that are here and competing to be currencies of the internet…today…not years from now.
Killer experience today — received P2P USDC transaction with
@blockfolio
using
@solana
USDC and then instantly spent the USDC using
@FTX_Official
@Visa
card. Instant, basically free. Open and interoperable. This is how money should be!
@circlepay
15/ Finally, as someone who's been involved in this industry for 10 years, it is disappointing that a technology that was spawned in reaction to the Lehman Bros moment of 2008 has given rise to its own version of the same. We can do better.
7/ Beyond payments and settlement, and unlike legacy settlement mediums, public chains combine transactions and compute, enabling a radically new modes of financial and commerce apps to be built.
Mastercard adopts
#USDC
and taps
@circlepay
for new initiative to settle transactions between card issuers and Mastercard itself. Expanding inter-operability between existing payment networks and USDC is happening.
1/ Today we announced that we have formally registered to be regulated in France as the headquarters for our European expansion, under French digital assets and e-money laws, with plans for EU-wide operations under MiCA.
BREAKING coverage from
@Bloomberg
on
@circle
.
"Circle had $779 million in revenue in the first half of the year, already surpassing the $772 million for all of 2022. The private firm generated $219 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and
5/5 There are two modes of reacting to China in US. FOMO, envy and a belief that we should be more like them, given their ability to execute; vs a stoic / determined outlook that believes in the open internet. Be on the right side of history; embrace the open internet of value.
Hi Justin, I would be honored to join you and
@WarrenBuffett
next week to discuss crypto!! Count me in. Crypto is now a major global policy issue and there is a great deal for Mr Buffet to understand and for us to learn from him as well.
I'd like to invite my good friend
@jerallaire
, Co-founder & CEO of Circle, to join my lunch with
@WarrenBuffett
. 7 days to go and more friends to be announced!
Tl;Dr: While USDC can be used 24/7/365 on chain, issuance and redemption is constrained by the working hours of the U.S. banking system.
USDC liquidity operations will resume as normal when banks open on Monday morning in the United States. As a practical matter, our teams are
1/6 Just wrapped up 5+ hours of testimony with Congress. A few quick reflections. First, huge thanks to
@RepMaxineWaters
and
@PatrickMcHenry
and the
@FSCDems
for a highly engaged, full member participation hearing! Huge accomplishment.
100% of USDC reserves are also safe and secure, and we will complete our transfer for remaining SVB cash to BNY Mellon.
As previously shared, liquidity operations for USDC will resume at banking open tomorrow morning.
It is really remarkable that of all the provisions in a $1 trillion infrastructure bill — crucial to the nation’s water systems; electric grid; trains; highways/bridges/ports etc — the issue generating the most heat at the goal line is … cryptocurrencies
1/ Yesterday, US Treasury designated for sanctions ETH addresses associated with Tornado Cash. As a US regulated FI subject to Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements, Circle, together with our partner
@coinbase
, restricted the movement of USDC funds in these sanctioned addresses.
1/ MAJOR NEWS today for mainstream adoption of USDC, with
@stripe
announcing crypto payouts with USDC, launching with
@twitter
as the first pilot customer. It’s rewarding to see some of the most important internet companies in the world using Circle.
Already here. USDC w SolanaPay enabling this SF coffee house to accept payments with instant settlement, and fraction of a cent tx cost. Industry has got this.
The Hamilton Project's proposal for a CBDC processing system offers, as an example of a CBDC's "primary use case," a user "pay[ing] for coffee...by sending digital currency to the cafe owner." I sure hope the system works: having to carry wampum around is getting to be a drag.
1/4
Today
@circle
launched our new media campaign -- "Money is now open" -- speaking to the transformation that is in front of us with open money on open networks (USDC).
1/ The largest fintech in LATAM,
@mercadopago
, part of Mercado Libre, the Amazon of LATAM with 200M users, is rolling out support for USDC in key markets, starting with Chile. Momentum for USDC and digital dollars building around the world!
New
@Solana
Product Launch from Circle -- coming soon, EURC, our Euro Stable, and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) for Solana. CCTP on
@solana
will be a big deal -- seamless movement of USDC to/from Solana from Ethereum and EVM L2s + Cosmos + AVAX.
Additionally, we will be bringing on a new transaction banking partner with automated minting and redemption potentially as soon as tomorrow.
We are committed to building robust and automated USDC settlement and reserve operations with the highest quality and transparency.
.
@Circle
launches major new partnerships with
@nubank
, dramatically expanding USDC access in Brazil through one of the largest digital banks in the world with 85 million retail customers in Brazil alone.
TLDR Below:
Demand for digital dollars is growing
1/8 The STABLE Act would represent a huge step backwards for digital currency innovation in the United States, limiting the accelerating progress of both the blockchain and fintech industry.
The U.S. seems to be taking on the reality that digital assets represent one of the most significant technologies and infrastructures for the 21st century; it's rewarding to see this from the WH after so many of us have been making the case for 9+ years. (2/7)
Another big move.
@visa
expands adoption of $USDC into merchant settlement network, enabling acquirers to receive and settle natively in USDC. This is a big deal.
1/ We are excited to announce that Visa has expanded our stablecoin settlement capabilities to merchant acquirers launching pilots with
@Worldpay_Global
and
@Nuvei
utilizing the Solana blockchain
USDC growth continues to rip, having grown 30% from 4B to 5.2B in just 19 days, growing at a faster rate than any dollar stablecoin in the world. Legit internet dollar market infrastructure is here!
Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) is getting closer to launch. Such an important piece of infrastructure that can help foster more scalable, efficient, secure and user friendly apps built on USDC.
Indeed, the Payment Stablecoin Act, which remains a very active pursuit for Congress, would enshrine in law a regime where stabelcoin funds would be held with cash at the Fed and short-term T-Bills. We need this law now more than ever if we want a truly safe financial system.
1/ With so many firms facing fundamental challenges and risks, Circle has amped up our own information about Circle and USDC. Sharing it here so it's fresh for people to review. We started publishing these in the days following the Terra collapse.
A much longer thread will be coming with some reflections on all of the past weeks events. We've long advocated for full-reserve digital currency banking that insulates our base layer of internet money and payment systems from fractional reserve banking risk.
Possibly the largest bull signal for BTC ever. Crypto now a Presidential / Global policy issue. People everywhere will embrace a mix of sovereign and non-sovereign digital currency.
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity....
Instant merchant focused payment experience with USDC on Solana, with Solana Pay, an open toolkit for any to enable USDC payments that settle in less than a second with a transaction cost of less than a cent.
@phantom
@FTX_Official
apps launch support.
@cmsholdings
@paoloardoino
USDC on Solana is natively issued by Circle and is functioning fine. Not clear what the motivations are for exchange actions, which are disappointing.
3/5 Crypto and blockchain is an absolute threat to systems that are built around total control, centralisation of power, elimination of privacy, etc. which side of this do we want to be on?
Very big launch coming this week - Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) is going live on Noble, the asset-issuance chain on Cosmos. This will then be natively wired into DyDx on their app-chain on Cosmos. Why is this a big deal?
1) DyDX is one of the largest DeFi protocols in
1/ NEWS: Circle today announced a new $400M funding round and new strategic partnership with BlackRock focused on USDC. This is a huge milestone on the road towards mainstream adoption of digital currency. More below (link and thread).
New proposed FinCEN rule breaks DeFi -- how can a person provide the name and address of a counterparty when the counterparty is a DeFi protocol? This rule is broken.
Last night had an opportunity up celebrate the next phase of our $USDC partnership with
@brian_armstrong
and the
@coinbase
and
@circle
teams. Grateful for the partnership and the next chapter!
This is a big deal. Stellar has unlocked wallets and on and off ramps on a massive scale internationally. This provides a superb, fast and inexpensive way to move USDC globally and easily on and off ramp using cash. Congrats
@coinbase
and
@StellarOrg
!
$USDC on Stellar is now officially supported by
@Coinbase
! Coinbase’s millions of users can now benefit from near-instant speeds on USDC deposits and withdrawals via Stellar, and more easily access the network of real world utility. [1/2]
I'd also like to congratulate
@PayPal
and
@Paxos
for the launch of $PYUSD. It's incredibly exciting to see such a significant internet and payments company entering the stablecoin space.
This is what happens when we start to get regulatory clarity, and with the Payment
What do we expect with SVB and the FDIC?
We have reason to believe that under applicable FDIC policy, transfers initiated prior to a bank entering receivership would have otherwise been processed normally. In other words, the FDIC should allow transactions to settle in the