Cryptocurrency has been one such industry that has been progressing towards completely revolutionizing the global payment system and has been booming for quite some time now. I am sure that considering its exponential growth and increase in popularity over the past couple of years, you must all be aware and well versed with the entire concept of virtual currencies, their working and operations.
However, as usual, for some of you who are new to crypto, it is only logical that we first talk about cryptocurrencies in brief for you to have a much better understanding of what we have with us today. To begin with, virtual currencies have been with us for a long time now and have penetrated into our payment systems on an international level.
Basically, crypto is nothing but a form of online currency which can easily be made use of for the purpose of trade and exchange along with being used for buying and selling goods and services, just like in the case of physical money, but over the internet of course. In simpler words, cryptocurrency is a blockchain-based decentralized platform that provides users with an opportunity to earn significant profits. But, it is important for you to understand the fact that, if not done right, you can end up having huge losses as well.
That is the reason why many people steer clear of the industry, mainly because of its highly volatile and uncertain nature, which means that the fluctuation in prices is almost instant, thus making it really difficult to predict the price changes in the marketplace. Not just that, despite all of this, the crypto world has been able to lure in potential investors from all around the world and make a name for itself on a global level.
Some other reasons for the extraordinary success of the industry are the fact that they are extremely portable, convenient, easy to use as well as have a highly intuitive nature, to name just a few. Speaking of a lot of currencies available today, it is worth mentioning that, some of the popular currencies for you to choose from in the marketplace include Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cardano, Binance Coin, Dogecoin, Baby Doge, and more.
Now that you have a basic understanding of cryptocurrencies, I sincerely believe that you will be able to have a much better understanding of what we are going to talk about next, USD Coin. To know more, I suggest you read further!
Everything to know about USD Coin (USDC)
USD Coin or as often referred to as USDC is nothing but a stablecoin that is pegged on a 1:1 basis to the U.S. dollar, backed by dollar-denominated assets held by the US-regulated financial institutions in segregated accounts. Founded by a collaboration among Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange as well as Circle, a company providing users with peer-to-peer services, USD Coin focuses on offering users with easy everyday payments, commerce, and peer-to-peer transactions.
In other words, every unit of the currency in circulation is said to be backed by a dollar that is held in the platform’s reserve as a blend of short-term US Treasury Bonds and cash. As per the Centre consortium backing USDC, the currency is issued by regulated financial institutions. Other than this, it is worth mentioning that, USDC mentioned above is the native utility token of the platform.
Basically, Stablecoins that have their values fixed to a reserve asset like the US dollar, are one of the most versatile and popular forms of virtual currencies that came up over the past few years. USD Coin as the name suggests is one such crypto that is dollar-pegged. The main focus of this magnificent stablecoin is to allow users to witness cheaper and faster transactions as and when compared to traditional payments, while further reducing the volatility and uncertainty that is often associated with other cryptocurrencies available in the marketplace, like Bitcoin for instance.
In addition to this, USDC is like an alternative to other already existing USD-backed cryptocurrencies like TrueUSD(TUSD) as well as Tether(USDT). In a nutshell, USD Coin is just a service in order to tokenize US dollars as well as facilitate their use over public blockchains and the internet of course. Besides, it is vital for you to know that, USDC tokens are capable of being changed back to USD at any time and that, the execution of redeeming and issuing USDC tokens is ensured with the help of commonly known ERC-20 smart contracts.
Also, the stablecoin was initially launched about three years ago, back in September 2018, and that too on a limitless basis. As per a report from CoinMarketCap, the mantra for USD Coins is “digital money for the digital age” and that USD Coin is designed for a world where virtual transactions are becoming more and more common with each passing day.
Through this, USD Coin has been able to represent a major breakthrough in how we use money. Digital dollars move at the speed of the internet, are much more secure when compared to already existing payment systems, are significantly cheaper, and can be exchanged in a similar way that we share content.
As mentioned previously, USD Coin is a great option for people looking to invest in virtual currencies without having to take risks and can easily avoid volatility in the marketplace, unlike many popular currencies like Ethereum as well as Bitcoin. Not just that, putting the US dollar on a blockchain allows it to be sent anywhere all across the globe within just a matter of a few minutes and provides virtual currencies with much-needed stability, while also offering various newer possibilities including lending, trading, as well as risk-hedging.
Originally when the currency was introduced, it was just an ERC-20 token, which then has expanded on to the Solana Blochcian along with Algorand as well. Talking about the use cases of the USD Coin, let me tell you that, there are several uses for the currency. Apart from providing a safe haven for traders in the cryptocurrency marketplace in times of high volatility, the developers and people behind the stablecoin also claim that it allows businesses to accept digital assets as a mode of payment while removing a complete array of sectors including gaming as well as decentralized finance.
The basic aim of USD Coin is to create an ecosystem where USDC is being accepted by as many exchanges, wallets, decentralized applications as well as service providers as possible.
What makes USD Coin special?
Over the past couple of years, the stablecoin market as some of you may already know, has become exceedingly crowded but USD Coin has aimed at standing strong and putting on a fair fight over competitors in various ways.
One of these ways includes transparency with the users and giving them the assurance that they will be eligible to receive 1 dollar in return for withdrawing 1 USDC without any problems. Moreover, the officials behind USD Coin say that a major accounting firm is responsible for the verification of levels of cash available in the reserve as well as ensuring that the count matches with the number of tokens currently in circulation.
Unlike many other cryptocurrency-based associations, Coinbase and Circle have been able to achieve conformity, which has significantly helped them in order to guide the direction for international expansion. Not just that, the USD Coin has absolute certainty, all thanks to both projects being well-funded and independent financially.
Investing in USD Coin
As of today, the price of USD Coin is about 0.999986 US dollars with a twenty-four-hour trading volume of 2,640,575,929 dollars. Not just that, in just the past twenty-four hours, the value of the USD Coin has gone up by 0.01% percent, and with a market cap of 32,925,791,960 US dollars, the platform is currently placed at 9th position as per the CoinMarketCap rankings.
Also, it is worth mentioning that, the current circulating supply of USDC is nearly 32,926,255,285 USDC coins but unfortunately, the maximum lifetime supply of the currency is not yet available. In just the past week alone, the price of USD Coin has gone uphill by 7,430.60 percent.
Reading so far, you must have gotten a fair understanding of the platform and by now, you should be able to figure out on your own whether or not investing in USDC is the right thing for you to do. Seeing what it has to offer when combined with its performance in the recent past as well as its plans for the near future, I certainly believe that USD Coin can prove to be a worthy investment in the near future and can provide you with good returns but again, nothing can be said for sure!
As mentioned at the very beginning, crypto is a highly volatile marketplace and is extremely uncertain. Thus, It is extremely important for you to understand the fact that just like any other currency in the crypto marketplace, USD Coin does have its own risks as well and you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.
If you are wondering, where can you buy USD Coin? Let me help you with that. Currently, USD Coin is available on all major crypto exchanges but some of the popular exchanges that have USDC listed on them include Binance, Huobi Global, Mandala Exchange, OKEx as well as CoinTiger to name a few.
In conclusion, What are your thoughts on USD Coin? Do let us know in the comments below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
Also read: popular publicly listed companies that hold Bitcoin!
