More USD Coin (USDC) was printed on April 30 than at any time in the dollar-backed stablecoin’s existence, as just over $3 billion was minted in one fell swoop.
New USD Coins are minted whenever a customer exchanges their U.S dollars for the stablecoin, and Friday’s influx amounted to over 26% of its market cap at the time.
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The sudden arrival of $3 billion worth of USDC into the cryptocurrency market coincides with a surging altcoin market, evidenced by Bitcoin’s (BTC) descent to its lowest market cap dominance in two and a half years.
Bitcoin’s dominance of 47.79% on Friday was the lowest since August 2018, as Ethereum (ETH), Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Cardano (ADA) and others saw their own market cap presence swell massively since the turn of the year. In early January, Bitcoin’s dominance was perched at over 70%, and has been on a steady decline since.
The value of USD Coin in circulation jumped from $11 billion to almost $14.4 billion on Friday, meaning USD Coin now has a market cap worth 28% of the most utilized stablecoin, Tether (USDT), of which over 50 billion are in circulation. In August 2020, USD Coin held a market cap worth just one tenth that of Tether, suggesting traders have found a definite use for USDC, perhaps at the expense of USDT.
Circle, which founded USD Coin in combination with well-known cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, recently announced that it had tapped New York based Signature Bank to ensure the backing of USD Coin with appropriate reserves. USD Coin is reportedly backed by a mix of cash and short-term U.S treasury bonds.
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