CoinGecko reported that the market capitalization of Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) increased from just $500 million to about $26 billion in the past five years. USDC was developed by the Centre Consortium, which provided governance and is now competing with Tether’s USDT and PayPal’s own stablecoin.
Coinbase and Circle have had a partnership in the past, where Coinbase took on the role of distributor and promoter, and Circle provided the majority of the labour and capital. The companies agreed to split revenue based on USDC ownership and coin minting and distribution.
Coinbase has recently decided to take a more hands-on approach and the two companies have come to a new agreement that focuses more on holdings, particularly those on third-party DeFi wallets, and less on the business operations of the partners. The size of Coinbase’s stake in Circle has not been revealed.
The Centre Consortium has been disbanded as Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that it was no longer required. Allaire also mentioned that Coinbase’s stake in Circle was modest, and Circle will still be largely in control of the project.
Circle is aiming to enhance USDC’s capabilities and further generate money. They plan to introduce USDC on six new blockchains, but have yet to reveal the names of those blockchains. Circle has already introduced a Euro-backed stablecoin on Avalanche, and is working on cross-chain functionality and programmable wallets.
