Key takeaways:
- Circle, a global payments technology company and the issuer of USDC, has launched a new Circle Account
- Circle Account lets businesses deposit, withdraw, receive and store digital assets, as well as swap and access their stablecoins across eight blockchains
- Amidst the surging popularity of stablecoins, USDC’s market cap surpassed $50 billion earlier this month
Circle Account lets enterprises manage and settle payments in USDC
Circle, the issuer and operator of USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin in terms of market cap, has revamped its business-oriented service called Circle Account. The updated service will provide enterprise clients with an opportunity to store and settle transactions in USDC.
Circle Account allows its users to send and receive USDC across eight blockchains, including Algorand, Avalanche, Ethereum, Flow, Hedera, Solana, Stellar, and TRON.
In addition to accessing and swapping USDC across a number of popular chains, clients can easily add multiple users, access transaction history, and use multi-factor authentication to secure their crypto funds. Accredited investors can also take advantage of Circle Yield, a yield generating product with an APY of up to 6%.
The stablecoin giant initially launched Circle Account in 2020. The company noted that the number of active accounts increased by more than 200% by the end of 2021. Ben Duggan, Head of Investor Relations at Berkley Capital, shared his company’s experience with Circle Account in a statement:
“We’ve been extremely impressed with the Circle Account, especially how quick and easy it is to use. Sometimes we send funds in and out and are in and out of the website in less than a minute.”
The stablecoin sector has grown over 500% since the beginning of 2021
The revamp of Circle’s enterprise-centric offering comes amidst a massive increase in the popularity of stable digital assets. According to data curated by CoinCodex, the overall stablecoin market cap increased from $26.7 billion at the beginning of 2021 to $164.9 billion as of February 24, 2022. In total, the combined value of all stable digital currencies in circulation has grown by more than 500% in the last 14 months.
Tether’s USDT still accounts for the biggest share of stablecoin supply with 47.7%. However, in relative terms, the USDC stablecoin has experienced more substantial growth in the recent past, currently accounting for 32.2% of the total supply, up from 15.2% at the start of last year.
On the heels of a massive market expansion, USDC surpassed the $50 billion market cap milestone earlier this month and even overtook Tether as the largest stablecoin on the Ethereum platform.
Last week, Circle’s valuation doubled to $9 billion after inking a new merger deal with Concord, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded to facilitate Circle’s initial public offering (IPO) which is slated to take place later this year or early in 2023.
