BlackRock leads Circle's $400 million financing and becomes the main custodian of USDC cash reserves
This article comes fromDecrypt, original author: Jeff Benson
Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang
On Tuesday, cryptocurrency payment company CircleAnnounceAnnounce
Completed a new round of financing of US$400 million, led by asset management company BlackRock, with participation from Fidelity management and Research, Marshall Wace LLP and Fin Capital.
Last month, Circleexpress, Bank of New York Mellon will be selected as the main custodian for USDC reserves. Has yet to comment on how custody will be split between BlackRock, BNY Mellon and others, but he told Forbesexpressexpress
This could be lucrative for asset managers. Circle announced plans to go public at the beginning of the year,expectedexpected
In February of this year, CircleAnnounceAnnounce
, reached new transaction terms with the special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp (NYSE: CND), and the valuation of Circle rose from the US$4.5 billion announced in July 2021 to US$9 billion.
Circle’s USDC partnership with Coinbase has been eating away at Tether’s (USDT) market dominance. According to CoinMarketCap, USDC is currently the second-largest stablecoin with a circulating supply of 50.6 billion, while Tether’s stablecoin USDT has a circulating supply of 82.6 billion. A year ago, USDT had a circulation of 45.9 billion and USDC had a circulation of 11.3 billion, which means that USDC has slightly narrowed the gap between the two.
But it’s also unclear whether Circle’s funding agreements, partnerships with traditional financial institutions, and regulatory compliance efforts could put it on a trajectory to overtake Tether. Tether is currently three years ahead of Circle.
And Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino yesterdayexpressexpress
, Tether plans to further reduce its holdings of commercial paper in its reserves. Prior to the fourth quarter of 2021, commercial paper accounted for Tether's total reserves have dropped from more than 44% in the third quarter to more than 30%. Tether has transferred the corresponding funds from commercial paper to U.S. Treasury bonds.
Circle’s efforts in this regard have gone a step further, in line with the demands of regulators and banking institutions — moves they have made to reassure investors that stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar are, in fact, backed by the U.S. dollar.
