Binance has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Circle to accelerate the global adoption of USDC.
Thanks to this partnership USDC will become more widely available.
Circle: the stablecoin USDC
USDC is the second largest stablecoin in the world by market capitalization.
It is anchored to the United States dollar (USD), and it has existed since 2018.
It is issued by Circle, and as of today, it capitalizes almost 41 billion dollars.
Note that among the shareholders owning Circle there is also Coinbase, the main crypto exchange competitor of Binance.
The fact is that USDC currently has a clear advantage over USDT, the main stablecoin in the world: it is compliant with MiCA.
The MiCA is the new crypto regulation of the European Union and will come into full effect in 2025. Due to the fact that USDT is not yet compliant with the MiCA, it is absolutely possible that before the start of the new year it will be delisted from the main exchanges for users residing in the EU. There will be no restrictions for other markets, starting with the USA.
Therefore, it is possible that crypto investors and speculators in the European Union, which has more inhabitants than the United States of America itself, will find USDC to be the main alternative to USDT in case the latter is no longer usable on centralized exchanges.
Binance focuses on USDC
Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world.
Although in the USA it is little used, also due to the numerous legal vicissitudes with the Department of Justice, in Europe, on the other hand, it is widely used.
It is not surprising, therefore, that they have decided to give more importance to USDC.
The strategic partnership with Circle was announced today at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week, and it will allow Binance to make USDC more widely available within its full suite of products and services aimed at its 240 million users globally.
Furthermore, Binance will adopt USDC as the dollar stablecoin for its corporate treasury, thus sending a powerful signal to the on-chain world.
At the same time, Circle will provide Binance with the technology, liquidity, and other necessary tools so that the users of the exchange can benefit from the trust and innovation that Circle has built for USDC.
The war of the stablecoin
The so-called “stablecoin war” has been going on for many years now, probably since 2018 when USDC was introduced to the crypto markets.
USDT has existed since 2014, but it was only in 2017 that it experienced the first real boom.
Currently, there is no other stablecoin that is able to compete with USDT and USDC in terms of market capitalization and usage, even though there are two that are already widely used.
It concerns USDS (formerly DAI) and USDE, both of which are not compliant with MiCA.
Practically, in the case where USDT is not actually compliant with MiCA, the only major stablecoin to be so, among those pegged to the US dollar, would be USDC.
At this point, USDC seems to be able to become the leading stablecoin in the EU, even if in the rest of the world USDT will most likely remain the leader.
The comment on the new Binance x USDC partnership
The Presidente e CEO di Circle, Jeremy Allaire, stated:
“Binance is an incredibly innovative company and has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to product quality, innovation, and user-centricity, all aspects seen in its enormous and loyal global community of over 240 million users. With Binance rapidly becoming the world’s leading financial super app and the adoption and utility of stablecoins at the heart of this future financial system, this is a huge opportunity for USDC as it becomes ubiquitous on the Binance platform. I am excited to work with the Binance management team as they continue to build the world’s largest digital asset company”.
The CEO of Binance, Richard Teng, added:
“Circle is undoubtedly one of the most reliable and innovative companies in the digital asset ecosystem, and USDC is one of the most prominent products in the world. Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC in trading, and other products on Binance. We will also work closely with Circle to promote innovation and utility for stablecoins globally. Working together as a team, we believe we can effectively promote opportunities for the Internet’s financial system”.
