Global fintech Circle announced on Thursday it has joined forces with digital asset prime brokerage firm Genesis to accelerate the adoption and acceptance of digital dollar stablecoins in mainstream finance.
According to Circle and Genesis, the partnership includes a $25 million investment of capital into Circle from Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of Genesis, as well as joint product efforts aimed at enhancing Circle’s new suite of products for businesses and developers with new USD Coin (USDC) yield and lending services.
“USDC in particular has experienced tremendous growth, decisively becoming the fastest growing and most widely adopted fully-reserved and compliant digital dollar stablecoin. USDC in circulation has grown from just over 400 million in early 2020 to over 1.1 billion today. USDC adoption has expanded across trading, payments, savings, lending and other use cases in blockchain finance. Today, hundreds of companies in the blockchain ecosystem have integrated support for USDC in their products and services.”
While sharing more details about the partnership, Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis, stated:
“With the rapid rise of USDC, we are clearly seeing mainstream momentum for digital currencies, and through this partnership with Circle we believe we can materially advance our shared mission of building a new global financial system.”
Jeremy Allaire, Chairman and CEO of Circle, concluded:
“Combining Circle’s powerful capabilities with USDC payments and platform infrastructure for businesses, with Genesis’s global institutional underwriting capabilities, will allow us to deliver significant value to companies holding and using USDC as part of their business.”
The collaboration with Genesis comes just a couple of months after Circle launched its Circle Business Account and Circle API products in Q2 2020. The services provide businesses, fintechs and other financial institutions with a comprehensive suite of accounts and APIs for integrating and implementing USDC for payments, commerce, and financial applications.