Coinbase and Circle announce launch of USDC stablecoin

Crypto exchange Coinbase has added support for the Circle-issued stablecoin, which was first announced last month.

“Coinbase customers in supported jurisdictions can buy, sell, send and receive the USD Coin stablecoin (USDC) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase iOS and Android apps. US customers outside New York state can buy and sell, and customers around the world can send and receive. More geographies will be available in the future,” it says in a blog post.

This is the first time Coinbase has supported a stablecoin. The underlying technology behind the USDC was developed in conjunction with Circle, in their capacity as partners and co-founders of the new CENTRE Consortium.

“The advantage of a blockchain-based digital dollar like USDC is easier to program with, to send quickly, to use in dApps, and to store locally than traditional bank account-based dollars. That’s why we think of it as an important step towards a more open financial system,” the blog post states

Use cases 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 an 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.
• 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.

USDC will be coming to Coinbase Pro in the near future, and is already supported on Coinbase Wallet.