Wednesday saw Circle release the results of the latest audit performed on the current supply of USDC, and the reserves of fiat the tokens are pegged to.
According to the numbers, not only does the company have over 50% more stablecoins in circulation than it did in January, but it also has enough US Dollars easily in reserve to cover every one of them.
USDC Audit Results
Circle has unveiled the results of this audit, performed by Grant Thornton LLP, on the official company blog. In the report, the auditor firm verifies that as of October 31st, there were 464,507,005 USDC in circulation. It is further confirmed that the company is holding $464,628,070 in USD reserves. This obviously means there is, in fact, a surplus of $121,065 that the company could still use to back its stablecoin.
The latest attestation report from Grant Thornton LLP: USD Coin ($USDC) issued remain fully backed by US dollars held in reserve. Circulating supply reaches 464,507,005 USDC https://t.co/GPKaXc2KO2
— Circle (@circlepay) November 20, 2019
By comparing to a similar audit from the beginning of the year, we can see that the USDC supply in circulation has risen over 50% in 2019, up from just 307,793,724 tokens available at the end of January. That makes this a pretty exciting year for Circle, which has seen it rise up to become the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether. It also doesn’t hurt that USDC is supported by Coinbase, who just recently began offering interest on all holdings of the token on its platform, to incentivize use.
Putting Tether’s Dominance in Question?
This could be the beginning of a more significant paradigm shift in the market as well. Even though Tether has traditionally dominated the stablecoin arena, it is now facing some notable stagnation in its growth. Also, the asset continues to battle controversy and legal issues, which may be marring its image to many. While USDC has only seen growth this year, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a long road ahead. According to CoinMarketCap, Circle’s token is still only about 1/10 as large as Tether by market capitalization. Given that, it’s a bit too early to watch for the current leader to be unseated.
All of this certainly points to a bright future for Circle and USDC, as it should give users even more faith in the upcoming asset. It is still unclear if it can ever unseat Tether, but it certainly comes with less baggage and uncertainty. Obviously, other coins are vying for the same position, such as Paxos and TrueUSD, but with support from Coinbase and a verifiable record, USDC could be hard to stop.
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