Circle, a digital asset ecosystem that is focusing on stablecoins, has received a $25 million investment from the Digital Currency Group – parent of Genesis.
Once more of a crypto-exchange, Circle has pivoted a bit to service other sectors of digital assets. In Q2 of this year, Circle launched a suite of services, providing businesses with a portfolio of products and APIs for integrating and implementing stablecoins for payments, global commerce, and financial applications.
The investment in Circle was described as being used to accelerate the global adoption of USDC in mainstream finance.
USDC is a dollar-based stablecoin said to be “the fastest-growing, regulated digital currency backed by the US Dollar.”
Circle’s new products will include yield (staking) and lending services – a hot sector of crypto.
In a blog post circle explained:
“[these] new 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. Customers adopting these services span a broad array of industries and use cases including e-commerce, on-demand delivery marketplaces, digital gaming, internet services, P2P digital wallets, exchanges, B2B payments, neobanks, trade finance and digital asset lending and yield products.”
It is noted that Genesis is one of the largest crypto asset lending platforms in the market. Genesis is said to have originated more than $2 billion in loans in Q1 2020, and has originated more than $8 billion since launching the business in March 2018. USDC has become one of the most in-demand lending and borrowing assets, according to Circle.
Once again, FT Partners played an important role in a Fintech raising capital as the investment bank advised Circle on the investment.