The Centre consortium announced on Thursday that USD Coin (USDC) will soon be available on the Stellar blockchain.
This marks the first time that a major stablecoin will be made available on the platform, joining the ranks of Anchor USD, WhiteStandard and some others. USDC is currently the second largest stablecoin in the market behind Tether (USDT).
Circle said that USDC is expected to be available on Stellar in Q1 2021. USDC is primarily hosted on Ethereum, which holds virtually the entirety of its supply at $2.7 billion. Algorand was onboarded in June 2020, though it found limited success — only $3.5 million USDC currently circulates on the blockchain.
Denelle Dixon, the CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation said that “the addition of USDC to Stellar will allow us to continue to expand our global reach in pursuit of this mission while opening up new avenues for growth and innovation for the developers and businesses building on the network.”
The Stellar project positions itself as a value settlement layer, claiming over 4.6 million accounts and 1 billion transfers on the blockchain since its inception. USDC’s liquidity could help Stellar in fulfilling its mission of cross-border money transfer, Centre said.