USDC is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, built on the ERC-20 standard, and issued by regulated financial institutions. It was developed by the exchange giant Coinbase and Circle, a company backed by Goldman Sachs. Circle is a licensed Money Transmitter in the United States and must comply with federal laws and regulations.
The consortium behind USDC has also received a license from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to engage in virtual currency business activities.
Each USDC is guaranteed to be backed by a corresponding US dollar held in reserve. These dollar reserves are publicly attested to each month by Grant Thornton LLP, a top-5 global accounting firm. As of the January 2020 attestation, 440,715,490 USDC in circulation was backed by 440,780,676 USD.
USDC is currently the second most active stablecoin globally, with an average daily trading volume of approximately $1 billion USD.
The transparency and regulatory compliance of its reserves reduce risk for traders. This has led USDC to be widely regarded as a highly stable asset, making its characteristics as a safe-haven or hedge more distinct.
As a low-volatility digital asset, USDC is a widely accepted payment instrument. It is also extremely popular in the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) ecosystem. Similar to USDT, it can be used in DeFi lending protocols to earn high annualized yields (APY) (Note 1), making it one of the most widely used digital assets.
Note : For DeFi APY references, visit：https://loanscan.io/