The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, Coinbase, is taking steps to diversify its business. One of these steps was the partnership with USDC. Now, they are also earning profits from their own layer2 solution called BASE network, amidst the challenging conditions of bear markets where trading volumes are decreasing, exchanges need to maintain their income with such side businesses.
USDC News
According to a knowledgeable person, Circle Internet Financial, which is currently responsible for managing USDC, is preparing to launch six new blockchains including Polygon PoS, Base, Polkadot, NEAR, Optimism, and Cosmos through the Noble network, the stablecoin. Earlier this week, Circle and Coinbase announced that they have restructured their relationship with USDC. In addition to distributing the Centre Consortium that has been managing USDC since Coinbase’s establishment in 2018, Coinbase also acquired shares in Circle.
USDC was already available on Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Stellar, Algorand, Tron, Flow, Solana, and Hedera. The addition of more blockchains can contribute to the market value of USDC by expanding its usability.
The official announcement of the news can potentially cause positive performance of five cryptocurrencies depending on the overall market sentiment.
Which is Safer: USDC or USDT?
Both stablecoins have been targeted by the CEO of Binance, CZ. Prior to the Huobi FUD, CZ’s statements caused USDT to drop below $1. Months ago, Binance also targeted the second-largest stablecoin by delisting Binance USDC pairs. After this incident, we learned that BUSD will become history in 2024 due to Paxos being reviewed by the US.
US politicians trying to regulate stablecoins are working on comprehensive regulations and obligations. Since USDC has undergone more extensive audits compared to its competitor USDT, it may have an easier time navigating through this process. If we look at the medium and long-term outlook, USDC can be considered safer as it has already undergone more extensive audits. On the other hand, neither stablecoin can provide a complete guarantee against government pressure and asset seizures.
Despite all these, Binance’s delisting of pairs caused a significant portion of USDC’s market share to be lost. Tether increased its market dominance while PayPal launched its own stablecoin.
