Bitcoin exchange Coinbase announced today support for their first stablecoin. Customers in supported jurisdictions can now buy, sell, send and receive the Circle USD Coin (USDC) in their accounts. US customers outside New York state can buy and sell, and global users can send and receive. The company said more locations will be available in the future.
This is the first time Coinbase has supported a stablecoin. USDC is meant to represent a single US dollar (USD). One USDC is a 1:1 representation of a US dollar on the Ethereum blockchain.
Each USDC is 100% collateralized by a corresponding USD held in accounts subject to regular public reporting of reserves. The underlying technology behind the USDC was developed collaboratively between Coinbase and Circle as partners and co-founders of the CENTRE Consortium.
Use cases for USDC include:
- Improved send and receive – Two Ethereum wallets can quickly send and receive any amount of USDC at any time of day. Large transfers for business purposes become as easy as small e-commerce payments. Consumers can use the Coinbase app to send USDC to someone, while remaining confident the value is stable.
- Use in dApps and exchanges – There is a burgeoning ecosystem of crypto dApps, exchanges, and blockchain-based games. A USDC follows the ERC20 standard, which means it can be used with any app that accepts tokens based on that standard. The USDC can thus be used as a stable digital dollar to buy items in the crypto ecosystem, from Cryptokitties to tickets for blockchain-based games.
- A programmable dollar – For developers and fintech companies, a digital dollar like USDC is easier to program with. For example, given the private keys for USDC, a program can easily send and receive them back and forth using the public Ethereum blockchain.
Presently supported on the Coinbase Wallet, USDC will be coming to Coinbase Pro in the coming weeks.
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