USDC is in the “strongest position ever” after Terra collapse, says Circle CEO

Stablecoin USDC has surpassed USDT in terms of trading volumes on ether and, due to the collapse of UST, has become even more popular among investors. The CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, told about this, emphasizing that his company, which is the emitter of this coin, immediately after the Terra crisis began to publish data on the financial state of USDC.

According to Jeremy, the world’s second-largest stablecoin is in its “strongest position” ever. This is mainly because stablecoins have become more popular since Terra’s UST stablecoin collapse in May. At that time, observers began to call for more transparency in assets supporting dollar-linked cryptocurrencies.

“Circle is in the strongest financial position the company has ever been in, and we will increase our transparency. We comply with regulatory requirements for Stablecoin issuers, which should help build confidence in Circle,” said Jeremy Allaire.

The company has issued monthly reports about its assets since its launch in 2018. The last report states that Circle’s reserves are kept at $13.6 billion in cash and $42.1 billion in three-month U.S. Treasury bills. For instance, the company had just $1 billion of assets two years ago.

The stablest stablecoin?

The Circle team notes the following arguments to prove the stability of the USDC:

• USDC has always been backed by the equivalent value of U.S. dollar-denominated assets. USDC reserves are kept in the management and custody of leading U.S. financial institutions, including BlackRock and Bank of New York Mellon;
• The USDC reserve is held entirely in cash and short-dated U.S. government obligations, consisting of U.S. Treasuries with maturities of 3 months or less;
• As of 12:00 pm EST Friday, May 13, 2022, the USDC reserve consisted of $11.6 billion cash (22.9%), $39.0 billion U.S. Treasuries (77.1%), for a total of $50.6 billion (100%), and there were 50.6 billion USDC in circulation;
• Circle, the issuer of USDC, is audited annually, including the USDC reserve; the last two audits, for 2020 and 2021, have been published as part of Circle’s SEC filings as Circle prepares to become a listed public company on the New York Stock Exchange;
• USDC issuance is regulated under U.S. state money transmission supervision and is subject to the ongoing examination of Circle and its operations;
• USDC is always redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars.

But there is a possibility that it is too early to write USTC off. Last week Terra suddenly began a fast rise against the downturn in other popular cryptocurrencies. The project showed growth. We wrote about it here.