The not-for-profit organization Algorand Foundation has cut a deal with Circle to bring fiat-backed stablecoin capability to Algorand. The stablecoin, called USD Coin (USDC), is allegedly the fastest-growing full-reserve US Dollar stablecoin.
“Growth in mainstream financial use cases is driving more demand for high-throughput payments and finance-optimized blockchain infrastructure,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle.
“The combination of USDC and Circle Platform Services with the Algorand blockchain will create a foundation for developing a wide range of scalable, secure and compliant financial applications.
Through this collaboration agreement, Circle will add support for digital dollar stablecoins that are interoperable with USDC. This will enable customers of Circle Business Accounts and Circle APIs to easily move funds between traditional banks and card networks to digital dollars on the Algorand blockchain. Customers will be able to have custody and manage accounts and payments activity through Circle APIs, and gain the speed, security and throughput advantages of Algorand’s blockchain.
USDC is the fastest-growing stablecoin, supported by hundreds of fintech companies in their products and services. With over $2.5B USDC issued to date, USDC has seen over $50B in transaction volume and settlements on public blockchains. In recent months, due to increasing global demand for digital dollars, USDC has experienced significant growth, with a greater than 100% increase in USDC in circulation from pre-pandemic levels, with more than $940M in circulation.
Algorand Foundation and Circle will also jointly promote the unique benefits of USDC on the Algorand blockchain for financial institutions looking to build scalable, secure and compliant financial applications on public chains.
“As more financial institutions and enterprises look to build decentralized financial applications, they need a well-suited infrastructure and a compliant, regulated, and widely accepted stablecoin,” said Fangfang Chen, COO of the Algorand Foundation. “We are excited to partner with Circle to provide financial institutions with the tools they need to leverage the unique benefits of USDC and offer enterprise-grade solutions to build real-world use cases.”
As part of the implementation, in Q3 2020, Circle will also be providing the broader industry with a simple and seamless API for moving payments between USDC on Ethereum and USDC on Algorand, ensuring that digital wallets and exchanges can maintain a seamless experience for their customers.
The Algorand Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that has a vision of a borderless, frictionless economy built on public, decentralized blockchain technology. The Foundation, in partnership with Algorand Inc, has built the Algorand blockchain protocol — initially designed by cryptography pioneer and Turing award winner Silvio Micali and a team of leading scientists — as the cornerstone of achieving this vision. The Foundation envisions a wide breadth of applications being built on this protocol by a new, wider community of mainstream developers. The Foundation is committed to facilitating this innovation in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner by utilizing the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.
For more information, visit https://algorand.foundation/
Circle is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of stablecoins and public blockchains for payments, commerce and financial applications worldwide. Circle’s platform has supported over 100 million transactions worth tens of billions of dollars, with nearly 10 million retail customers, over a thousand businesses, while storing and securing more than $5 billion in digital currency assets. Today, Circle’s transactional services, business accounts, and platform APIs are giving rise to a new generation of financial services and commercial applications that hold the promise of raising global economic prosperity for all through programmable internet commerce. Learn more at https://circle.com.
Also published on Medium.
Kastelein has an Honorary Ph.D. and is Chair Professor of Blockchain at China’s first blockchain University in Nanchang at the Jiangxi Ahead Institute software and Technology. He has over a half a decade experience judging and rewarding some 1000+ innovation projects as an EU expert for the European Commission’s SME Instrument programme as a startup assessor and as a startup judge for the UK government’s Innovate UK division. Kastelein has spoken (keynotes & panels) on Blockchain technology at over 50 events in 30+ cities.
