USDC USDC

USDC, sometimes still called USD Coin, is a stablecoin designed to be worth one US dollar. It is issued by Circle, a US company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and runs on dozens of blockchains. People use it to hold dollars in crypto form, pay and transfer money quickly, or as a base currency in decentralised finance. For a broader view of this category, see our guide What are stablecoins?.

What is USDC?

USDC is a digital dollar: each token is meant to be redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. According to Circle, it is backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets, and the majority of the reserve sits in the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered government money market fund managed by BlackRock. Circle publishes monthly reserve attestations by a Big Four accounting firm, and BlackRock reports the fund’s holdings daily.

USDC was announced on 15 May 2018 and launched in September 2018 through Centre, a consortium formed by Circle and Coinbase. Centre was dissolved in August 2023, and Circle now governs USDC alone.

How USDC works

Minting and redemption

Businesses with a Circle account deposit dollars and receive newly minted USDC; when they send USDC back, the tokens are burned and dollars are returned. Individuals usually buy and sell USDC on exchanges or in wallets. There is no fixed supply: the number of tokens in circulation follows demand.

Native on many blockchains

As of September 2026, Circle says USDC is natively issued on 38 blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana. Each version is a separate token on its own chain, so you must send USDC on a network that the recipient supports. Like other centrally issued tokens, USDC can be frozen by its issuer at specific addresses.

Regulation

On 1 July 2024, Circle’s French entity obtained an electronic money institution licence from the ACPR, the French banking regulator, making USDC compliant with the EU’s MiCA regulation. Circle Internet Financial Europe appears in ESMA’s register of authorised e-money token issuers. In the US, Circle says USDC is a covered stablecoin under the SEC staff’s April 2025 statement on stablecoins, and the GENIUS Act signed in July 2025 created a federal framework for dollar stablecoins.

A short history of USDC

• September 2018: launch of USDC through the Centre consortium.
• March 2021: Visa announces support for settling transactions in USDC.
• 11 March 2023: USDC loses its peg after Circle discloses 3.3 billion dollars, about 8% of reserves, held at the failed Silicon Valley Bank; the peg is restored within days.
• August 2023: Centre is dissolved and Circle takes full control.
• February 2024: Circle stops minting USDC on TRON.
• 1 July 2024: USDC becomes MiCA-compliant in the EU.
• 5 June 2025: Circle goes public on the New York Stock Exchange.

What USDC is used for

• Holding dollars without leaving the crypto ecosystem, for example between two trades.
• Payments and transfers, including cross-border payouts that settle in minutes.
• Decentralised finance: lending, liquidity pools and collateral, as explained in our guide DeFi explained.
• Business settlement: payment companies use USDC to move funds between partners.

What makes USDC different

USDC’s main argument is transparency and regulation: monthly attestations, a reserve held mostly in a regulated money market fund, a publicly listed issuer and an EU licence under MiCA. That makes it one of the few dollar stablecoins that EU-authorised platforms can offer to the public without restriction. Its main rival, Tether’s USDT, is not authorised under MiCA.

Risks and criticism

USDC is only as good as its issuer and its reserves. The March 2023 depeg showed that even a well-regarded stablecoin can wobble when part of its reserve is stuck at a failing bank. Holders also depend on Circle’s banking partners and on regulators. Circle can freeze addresses, which helps fight fraud but means USDC is not censorship-resistant. Finally, USDC itself pays no interest: yields offered by platforms come from lending or rewards programmes that carry their own risks.

How to store USDC

USDC can be held on an exchange or in any wallet that supports the chosen network. Before each transfer, check the network on both sides: a token sent on a chain that the recipient does not support may be lost. Remember that you need a little of the network’s native coin (ETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana) to pay transaction fees. For larger balances, a hardware wallet keeps your keys offline.