Circle had just under $127.5 million backing the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin at the end of last month. This figure was confirmed by a recent audit performed by Grant Thornton.
Circle was keen to note that it wasn’t operating under any fractional reserve basis as it commented, “the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US dollars held in custody accounts”.
Independent accounting firm Grant Thornton releases attestation report on USDC dollar reserves https://t.co/gypZnFKT6j
— Circle (@circle) November 21, 2018
Grant Thortens said that its examination was conducted in accordance with standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
It added: “We believe that the evidence we obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a reasonable basis for our opinion”.
It concluded its report with a statement that tried to distance it from any potential liability related to the users of Circle’s USDC: “Individuals who acquire and utilise USDC tokens and other crypto assets are responsible for informing themselves of the general risks and uncertainties”.
Strangely the audit was not signed by any individual but instead only by “Grant Thornton LLP New York”.
Competing with Tether
Coin Rivet recently bought you the story of Tether confirming its banking arrangement, in a letter from Deltec Bank & Trust Limited dated 1st November.
According to the latest data from coinpaprika.com, we can currently see $163 million of circulating USDC with a daily trading volume of just under $4.5 million. This works out at a 2.7% volume to circulating supply ratio, a stark contrast to Tether that reached 207% trading volume to market cap ratio.
The latter, of course, still dominates the stablecoin market, with a market cap of over $1.8 billion today.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.