The USDC stablecoin from Circle has reached the symbolic milestone of $60 billion in market capitalization, highlighting the stablecoin market's growth as it exceeds $230 billion.
Spectacular Growth for USDC
USD Coin officially crossed the $60.2 billion market capitalization mark this Wednesday, reflecting a doubling of its value in just one year, as its capitalization was around $30 billion in March 2024. This dollar-pegged stablecoin, issued by Circle and backed by Coinbase, maintains its position as the second-largest stablecoin in the market, with Tether’s USDT remaining in the lead at over $144 billion. USDC is distributed across several blockchains, with Ethereum holding over $36 billion and Solana following with $10 billion.
Circle's Strategic Expansion and Technological Advancements
During the first quarter of this year, Circle issued significant amounts of USDC on the Solana blockchain, often in batches of $250 million. As of March 20, emissions on the platform exceeded $10 billion. Circle also announced the launch of USDC in Japan through a partnership with SBI VC Trade, opening new opportunities in the Asian market. Technically, Circle intends to evolve the USDC bridge on the Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Linea into a natively issued USDC. An enhanced version of its cross-chain transfer protocol CCTP v2 has also been deployed on Avalanche, Base, and Ethereum.
Momentum after MiCA Approval
This growth came a few months after Circle received MiCA approval (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) for the issuance of stablecoins in Europe in July 2024. This endorsement enhances USDC's legitimacy and accelerates stablecoin adoption in the European Union.
USDC's current success underscores the rise of stable cryptocurrencies and Circle's strategic efforts in expansion and technological advancement.
