Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, has revealed that most of the USDC reserves are held in cash and cash equivalents.
Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has revealed that most of the stablecoin reserves are held in cash and cash equivalent. The company’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, made this known in a blog post yesterday.
According to the blog post, Circle says it has put in place some rules to ensure that the total circulation of USDC remains backed on a 1:1 basis with dollar-denominated assets. The company’s attestation report indicates that 61% of USDC is backed by cash and cash equivalents.
The report added that “cash includes deposits at banks and Government Obligation Money Market Funds. Cash Equivalents are defined as securities with an original maturity less than or equal to 90 days in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP).”
Furthermore, 13% of the reserve is held in Yankee Certificate of Deposits (a savings vehicle marketed to larger investors and issued by foreign banks seeking to raise capital from U.S. depositors.)
The remaining reserves are held in U.S Treasuries (12%), commercial paper (9%), corporate bonds (5%) and Municipal Bonds & U.S Agencies (0.2%). This brings the total sum to $22 billion. However, at the time of this report, USDC’s total market cap is just above $26 billion.
Allaire said the new attestation report is part of the company’s goals to become a publicly-listed entity via SPAC. Hence, the transparency report is necessary. “As we continue our journey to becoming a public company, we will have increasing opportunities for greater transparency, accountability and disclosure around our broader business and operations,” he added.
Circle’s desire for transparency is necessary, considering Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has faced numerous controversies in recent years. Tether has been accused of minting USDT tokens and pushing them to the market without having actual cash reserves to back them up.