new best friend
USD Coin and why it should be talked about more
“USDC has $335 million in recent market value, making it among the 20 most valuable cryptos.” Forbes
Let’s start with the definitions. USD Coin is a stablecoin whose price is pegged to the US dollar. Like other stablecoins, one USDC is a 1:1 representation of the US Dollar on the Ethereum blockchain.
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that often has its value pegged to another asset, such as fiat currency, precious metals or other types of crypto.
While major cryptocurrencies experience high volatility, stablecoin aims to tackle this issue. By being collateralized, stablecoin represents a value of 1 unit — 1 US Dollar, 1 Euro, 1 oz Gold, etc. The underlying is reserved for the equal amount in circulation and vaulted by the issuing company.
USDC is a project of Coinbase and Circle (Circle Internet Financial). USDC is an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
What are the advantages of USDC?
It’s important to note: this cryptocurrency is relatively new. Therefore, all the known advantages and disadvantages of the coin must be carefully evaluated.
You are able to tokenize USD as well as convert it back anytime on exchanges that support the ERC-20 standard and store it on wallets with similar compatibility. This gives the opportunity to transfer USD around the globe within minutes and provides the ability for trading, lending, hedging risk, and more.
USDC brings stability to other cryptocurrencies making the market more valuable. Since the start of 2020, USDC supply has grown by about 41%.
The USD Coin rate is more reliable than other stablecoins. This applies to both Tether coins (USDT) and other cryptocurrencies of this type.
One of the main achievements of the authors of USD Coin is sponsorship and partnership with many serious companies, such as Bitmain, IDG Capital, Baidu, and Goldman Sachs Group.
Overall, the project has very serious support, so it can be counted on the fact that in the future it will actively develop.
What are the disadvantages?
USD Coin is not the first stablecoin that aims to become an analog of the USD. Previous coins, such as Tether faced certain problems. At the moment, there is no accurate data on how the USDC will manifest itself, whether developers can eliminate the problems inherent in stablecoins.
There are a lot of similar coins on the market, therefore the competition is very high. USDC must show its clear advantages to bypass the others. As the coin depends on the US dollar, future price increases are unclear.
Since the coin is relatively new, users are left to guess how it will behave –whether it can remain in demand in the financial and digital world and how it will develop in the future.
How to become an owner of USDC?
The most popular exchanges that offer USDC are Coinbase, Poloniex, and Binance. There are more of course.
As mentioned earlier, you can store USD Coin on any wallet that supports ERC-20 technology. Among such are Raison AI, Coinbase Wallet, Coinomi, and Mist.
To sum it up…
The coin has all the chances to become the most valuable stable coin, which will bring its analogs out of the market — USDT (Tether) and TUSD (TrueUSD). The USD Coin coin has all the advantages of a blockchain, full compliance with the legislation and standards of banking organizations. For investors, it provides a variety of opportunities as well as for traders. The token can be used to capture income within the exchange.
Crypto space is “famous” for unsafe storage of assets. Hacks, scams, and phishing are quite common due to an unregulated environment. That’s why make sure to lookout for a good wallet to store your assets.
