Just-In: Circle Mints 8.4 Billion USDC Within 7 Days, Why?

Circle, the payments technology company behind the digital stablecoin USDC, has revealed, in a blog post, that it has redeemed 6.7 billion USDC and further minted 8.4 billion USDC during the past week, with 99.3 billion USDC and 61.1 billion USDC minted and redeemed respectively during all of 2021.

Circle prides itself at being transparent

Per information from the blog post (“How to be Be Stable — USDC Transparency and Trust”), the total USDC reserve as at noontime (EST) on Friday, 13 May, 2022 was $50.6 billion with 77.1% of it, amounting to $39 billion, being in U.S. Treasury securities; and 22.9%, amounting to $11.6 billion, in cash.

USDC, or USD Coin, was launched by Circle in September, 2018 as a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar in order to give [institutional] traders the opportunity to seamlessly convert their fiat dollar to USDC for trades on crypto exchanges by minting, and also convert their USDC back to fiat by redeeming when necessary.

Circle prides itself at being transparent in its audits and reports with regard to how its stablecoin USDC fares and the current market situation surrounding the asset. As a result, the firm provides periodic analyses to retain the trust of customers who are constantly reminded that USDC remains stable.

Circle seeks to assure investors of the stability of USDC amidst UST crash

This is especially important considering the current crisis situation that has plagued TerraUSD (UST) which is an algorithmic stablecoin. The asset suddenly crashed to a record low of $0.68 on May 10, infusing confusion into the crypto space, and has since then been struggling to recover.

The current UST situation is particularly problematic to investors who have staked the asset or are holding it in crypto exchanges as this would result in massive losses should they attempt to redeem it to fiat – a dilemma that ought not to exist with stablecoins.

The Terra development team alongside CEO Do Kwon have revealed measures being taken to stabilize the asset including burning 1.4 billion tokens among other things. Regardless, the asset still dips, trading at $0.16 as at press time. Considering this, Circle seeks to assure investors of the stability of USDC.