Today, Circle released the latest attestation report on US dollar reserves backing USDC issued by independent accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP. The report states that as of February 29, 2020 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time (“PT”):

• USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding = 444,800,620 USDC
• US Dollars held in custody accounts = $451,257,764
• As of the Report Date and Time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody accounts.

You can read the full report here. Grant Thornton LLP will provide USDC attestation reports on Circle’s USDC reserves on a monthly basis.

Today, we unveiled a new set of services aimed at helping to usher in the wider use of digital currency in everyday payments and commerce. Specifically, we are expanding our rollout of Business Accounts for USDC, and for the first time introducing a set of developer-oriented platform services dubbed Circle APIs. Combined, we hope that these services will help to unleash a new era of commerce on the internet, enabling businesses everywhere to easily integrate and benefit from the breakthrough of programmable money on the internet.

Until now, for most businesses, digital currency meant one thing — speculating on the value of new forms of non-government issued money and assets. It wasn’t something that could be relied upon or trusted to be used in everyday transactions or commerce more generally.

From the earliest days of founding Circle, we envisioned a world where “everyday money” such as dollars, euros and other popular currencies could inherit the most powerful features of digital currencies like bitcoin — open, global, connected to anyone and anything on the internet; fast, cheap and secure to transmit. We were enamoured by the potential of programmable money and smart contracts and how that could transform economic opportunities for people and businesses everywhere.

Over the years, we have persisted in meeting that vision, and believe now is the time that programmable internet money will be unleashed, and that creative developers and businesses everywhere can safely build on this new layer of the internet.

Today, for the first time, we are opening early access to these services, marking a big step towards realizing this vision.

The expanding role of USDC and stablecoins

Circle Business Accounts and Circle APIs are built on top of the innovation of USDC, the fastest growing full reserve and regulated US dollar stablecoin. Introduced less than 18 months ago, USDC has become a critical market infrastructure for the blockchain industry; it’s now widely used for payments and settlements between counter-parties all around the world, it’s supported by hundreds of 3rd parties who have integrated it into everything from digital wallets and exchanges, to securities platforms, trade finance systems, payment products, savings and lending, and even games.

USDC’s rapid growth is happening in a broader context, one where stablecoins are widely viewed as one of the most fundamental breakthroughs in how the international monetary system may function. Big techs like Facebook plan to introduce US dollar stablecoins for their own payment system, and big governments such as China are rolling out digital token-based money tied to the Chinese Yuan as a form of digital cash that will work on the internet.

The underlying infrastructure that supports these digital currencies is also improving at a rapid pace, with 3rd generation blockchains launching that can support global scale in users and apps across the public internet and private networks.

Now is the time for businesses everywhere to start diving into the power of programmable dollars on the internet. Just as every business eventually built a website, or setup social media channels, we believe we are on the verge of every business having a digital currency wallet and account. Developers will then be able to build on open APIs from platforms like Circle and mash these up with the powerful capabilities of public blockchains and smart contracts, inventing new models for trade and commerce.

For businesses, this technology heralds the possibility of making and receiving payments with anyone, anywhere in a low-cost and highly secure fashion. It also heralds breakthroughs on how developers can automate money as it becomes a native data type on the internet like other forms of content and data, bringing digital money into apps and services with the same ease and creativity that developers have brought content and communications into services.

While value exchange may be the initial killer app, it's the programmability of digital money that will ultimately usher in business model breakthroughs. Streaming payments between devices; payment contracts with gig economy workers that pay by the second; business contracts between buyers and sellers anywhere in the world mediated by code; more directly monetized digital content and digital goods; and of course, fundamental improvements to building block finance apps such as payments, lending, savings and investment — all immediate and exciting possibilities for programmable money. We’re excited to see what people can build!

How can we make this easy for businesses and developers?

Until recently, for a business to take advantage of this infrastructure it has often been complicated and confusing. Crypto wallets, exchanges, blockchain transaction management, gas fees, private key security, banking connectivity, and compliance hassles have all been technical and operational impediments to the average internet business jumping into digital currency.

As we know from years of work supporting millions of customers and hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions, running blockchain nodes reliably, securing digital currencies and assets in online and offline systems, connecting to the existing banking system, and navigating the complex waters of risk and compliance brought on by crypto is no small feat.

Our goal with Circle Business Accounts and Circle APIs is to simplify things so that a company can setup and begin using an account with the same ease that they might open a business bank account. Companies should be able to then easily upload their dollars to the internet, convert them into digital currency dollars, and start storing and using these stablecoins for everyday payments. Similarly, developers should be able to quickly and transparently access our APIs in a sandbox, get great examples and documentation, and begin building apps in minutes. These accounts and services should be as easy to adopt and integrate as other popular fintech cloud services such as Stripe or Plaid.

Circle Business Accounts

With the initial launch of USDC, we provided accounts for institutional traders focused on making markets or block trading digital currency, with customers who were interested in using USDC as the best available fiat on and off ramps. While that use case continues to be very strong for USDC, we’ve also seen USDC adoption begin to grow into other use cases including in savings, lending, payments, investments, trade finance and cross border payments and settlement.

With the launch of our new platform services and Circle APIs, we are also expanding the focus of USDC with the introduction of Business Accounts, allowing any business from 150+ countries to open an account and begin realizing the benefits of internet-native money.

Having a Circle Business Account is also the starting place for taking advantage of our programmable APIs, connecting your funds with powerful APIs.

Learn more about Circle Business Accounts.

Circle APIs

We are in the process of rolling out a family of new API services for businesses to leverage stablecoins to drive innovation in payments, finance and commerce applications. Our APIs are being designed with any business or internet commerce service in mind, not just crypto applications.

Today, we’re announcing three sets of APIs: Payments API, Wallets API and Marketplaces APIs.

• In the initial release of our Payments API, we make it possible to connect existing card rails directly into USDC, helping to bridge electronic money on cards into truly digital money. For businesses, this means that they can easily accept card payments but settle in USDC. Cards are just the first of many legacy rails that we’ll provide bridges for connecting into the world of stablecoins.

• Our Wallets API gives customers the ability to store and manage stablecoins, to handle and make payments, and to create automated workflows around complex account or sub-account structures that might exist for a business and commerce application. We take away the complexity of running nodes, reliable interaction with public chains, handling gas transaction fees, and crucially, of securing your digital assets.

• Our Marketplaces APIs extends the capabilities of Payments and Wallets to support the unique needs of online marketplaces and multi-sided platform businesses — e-commerce markets, gig and sharing economy services, markets for digital goods and content. Marketplace platforms are some of the most valuable internet commerce enterprises, and we believe these will be among the first to embrace the clear superiority of digital currency for their suppliers and end customers.

These APIs are rolling out starting today and over the coming weeks will be expanding. Developers can sign-up today to access our Developer Sandbox, get an API key, and start building.

Learn more about Circle APIs.

Circle’s Platform

While many firms in crypto may be very familiar with Circle, most existing internet businesses are less familiar with this space. Part of our story with these new products is the incredible foundation that they are built on top of.

With over 5 years of fundamental technology development and innovation, Circle’s platform services have supported over 10 million consumers, over 500 million transactions worth over $300B. We’ve securely stored and custodied over $5B in digital assets.

As one of the most licensed and regulated firms in the blockchain industry, we’ve also had the benefit of working with leading banking and card network schemes, enabling us to build products and services that can seamlessly integrate between the old and the new. And as a supervised financial institution, business can have confidence that we are maintaining the highest levels of security and compliance to protect their critical financial applications.

We are excited to unleash our platform capabilities for other developers and creators to build upon!

What’s our business model?

We believe that every business in the world should operate in a more fully digital context, and that now includes having digital currency financial accounts and integrating digital money more fully into their financial and commerce use cases.

As such, we want this technology to be broadly used and available, so we'll always have a free account for any business getting started. This free account will also include free access to our API sandbox, so in addition to storing and using digital currency, your team can imagine and develop apps on our APIs.

As customers grow their usage, we plan to introduce affordable subscriptions with scalable usage-based pricing. We will introduce more information about pricing options in an upcoming commercial launch, but businesses should rest-assured that our focus is on starting free and scaling up, all through self-service products.

What can I do today? What’s next?

Today, if you operate a business, you can open a Circle Business Account and start experimenting with the power of digital dollars. If you are a developer, you can sign up for our Developer Sandbox, access our docs and example app, and start building with our APIs.

We will be rolling out production access and many more APIs over the coming weeks and months.

Show us what you can build, give us feedback, and please join us on Discord where Circle team members and other community members are available to connect.

Jeremy Allaire

Today, Circle released the latest attestation report on US dollar reserves backing USDC issued by independent accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP. The report states that as of January 31, 2020 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time (“PT”):

• USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding = 440,715,490 USDC
• US Dollars held in custody accounts = $440,780,676
• As of the Report Date and Time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody accounts

You can read the full report here. Grant Thornton LLP will provide USDC attestation reports on Circle’s USDC reserves on a monthly basis.

Today, Circle released the latest attestation report on US dollar reserves backing USDC issued by independent accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP. The report states that as of December 31, 2019 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time (“PT”):

• USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding = 519,628,995 USDC
• US Dollars held in custody accounts = $520,537,729
• As of the Report Date and Time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody accounts

You can read the full report here. Grant Thornton LLP will provide USDC attestation reports on Circle’s USDC reserves on a monthly basis.

When I travel to Davos next week, I’ll be advocating for the public and private sector to come together to support the development of global stablecoins backed by central bank money and regulated through new forms of public and private partnership.

Such an approach allows the private sector, including the broader open technical development community, to drive forward with technology and business model innovation, while also ensuring a reasonable standard for compliance and safety and soundness.

In short, it offers the best way to tackle a central question that world leaders must answer: How to reshape the global economic order in a way that creates wealth and value for people around the world?

Partnership between the public and private sector for stablecoins will help build an international monetary system that combines the strengths of global central bank money with the power of public blockchains. Through such an effort, it should become possible to establish a new global economic system that is more inclusive, integrated, stable, secure, and open to everyone in the world, ultimately helping to increase wealth creation for all.

I’ll be making my case on a variety of panels and by publishing the a paper below -- “Stablecoins, Global Digital Currency and the Future of the International Monetary System.”

This paper attempts to catalyze new thinking by laying out key topics global policy makers should consider as they chart a course forward for the global financial system and digital currencies during the next decade. In particular, the paper explores the opportunities and challenges posed by stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC).

Please read it and let me know your thoughts on Twitter: @jerallaire

Today, Circle released the latest attestation report on US dollar reserves backing USDC issued by independent accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP. The report states that as of November 30, 2019 at 11:59 PM UTC:

• USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding = 457,103,362 USDC
• US Dollars held in custody accounts = $458,157,517
• As of the Report Date and Time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody accounts

You can read the full report here. Grant Thornton LLP will provide USDC attestation reports on Circle’s USDC reserves on a monthly basis.

Circle is approaching 2020 with a deep focus on stablecoins globally, dollars on public blockchains (USDC) specifically, and the powerful possibilities they unlock for people, businesses, and governments all around the world.

More than six years ago, we envisioned a world in which value can move freely and instantly over the internet -- lowering the cost of commerce, connecting and including more people in the financial system, and sparking financial innovation as money itself becomes programmable. Global stablecoins and USDC, which we created and delivered through the CENTRE industry consortium, propel that mission forward in Circle’s next phase.

Our 2020 product roadmap sees this focus emerging first in the form of new global payment, custody, and wallet APIs for stablecoins. These APIs will be offered as services to businesses and developers everywhere who will be able to take advantage of the innovation and efficiency of stablecoins without the cost, complexity and risk of implementing this infrastructure themselves.

Stablecoin Platform Services

This focus builds on Circle’s core strength: The platform services infrastructure we built and iterated on over the last six years. These core services support USDC and unlock financial use cases worldwide.

Circle’s platform services quietly supported our Pay, Invest, Trade and USDC products and businesses by providing robust underlying custody, risk and identity management, compliance management, data science, card and banking gateways, and blockchain gateways. These platform services are analogous to the massive foundation of an iceberg not visible beneath the water while our products were the small visible crest above.

In 2020, we’re excited to surface this core of what we’ve built and expose these powerful services through new APIs. These APIs will accelerate the adoption of stablecoins and USDC, which has already become the fastest growing and largest full-reserve stablecoin in the world.

It’s an exciting time to be building, as so much of what we’d envisioned upon founding Circle is now finally becoming reality at scale. Stablecoins, third generation blockchains, and deep global policy engagement suggest to us that the mass market phase of crypto currency adoption is approaching over the next two to three years.

Business Streamlining and Organization Changes

Our sharpened 2020 focus is supported by several recent changes in Circle’s business and organization. Focusing effectively on stablecoin platforms means we must reduce complexity, tighten our product portfolio, and organize our teams to execute with greater agility.

This streamlining takes the form of several specific decisions outlined below which have improved Circle’s ability to execute this next phase:

We’re announcing today that we have sold the Circle Trade OTC business to Kraken. We have known and admired Jesse and his team at Kraken for many years, and we have every confidence and expectation that Circle Trade customers and partners will continue to find best-in-class OTC liquidity service and responsiveness through Kraken going forward. Circle Trade represents an enormous success for the industry as well as for Circle, and we’re excited to see Kraken grow it further.

As has been widely reported, we also successfully sold and spun out our exchange business, Poloniex, into a standalone company backed by an Asian investment group. Although published reports continue to misrepresent both the original acquisition and the context of the spin out, it is true that Poloniex changed Circle significantly, and in order to gain focus on our stablecoin platform mission as well as practical US regulatory reality, we determined that we should exit the exchange business and enable it to prosper independently under new ownership.

Over the course of 2019, we also wound down the standalone Circle Pay application. Although we shuttered the mobile application, the underlying platform technologies, battled-tested with millions of users and billions of dollars in transactions, will be part of our new stablecoin platform services. This will enable third party applications to take advantage of the underlying platform services that powered Pay and other Circle applications.

SeedInvest, the top US equity crowdfunding platform and a registered Broker-Dealer and Alternative Trading System which we acquired in 2018, will continue to operate as an independent affiliate of Circle.

Just as our business gained focus, reduced complexity, and simplified -- so has the organization and our teams. As part of the successful Poloniex spin out, more than 80 Circle employees transitioned to the new standalone company.

We as Circle’s two founders have also streamlined: I (Sean) determined that these successful business changes make the timing appropriate to exit my co-CEO management position, though I will remain connected to the company as an independent director on the Circle Board of Directors. I also expect to propel the mission forward through CENTRE and other new complementary paths that traverse important challenges in infrastructure, regulatory policy, economics, and product development. This will be my final blog post co-authored with Jeremy.

At the executive level, our Chief Financial Officer Naeem Ishaq and Chief Legal Officer Gus Coldebella are also transitioning from the company into new adventures befitting their expertise. Gus will continue to advise the company on a number of important government relations issues. We are deeply grateful for their contributions.

These and other related organizational changes throughout the company help align operations and talent to match our stablecoin platform services focus and 2020 product roadmap.

Ultimately the crypto industry’s technical, regulatory, and product problems are fundamentally people problems, and it takes great people coming together to solve them. In 2020, we will continue to focus on building and growing our talented teams of people to execute on Circle’s next phase. We welcome outreach from people who share a belief in our mission of building an open global financial system.

The Vision for 2020

Our vision and mission remain unchanged since we founded Circle in the summer of 2013. We have, however, course-corrected many times as we execute on that mission to achieve the vision. We have learned many important lessons, and they inform where we are now and our plan for traversing the path ahead.

The global interest in stablecoins and digital currency backed by central bank money, the introduction of third generation public blockchains, and the accelerated global policy interest in crypto all provide an exciting backdrop for our new platform services in 2020. We are excited to get these technologies into the hands of creative developers and businesses everywhere.

Many of us in this nascent crypto ecosystem set out years ago on a shared mission to create an improved, inclusive, open financial system for the world. We’ve made a small yet undeniable impact so far, but we’re far from done. We could not be more proud to engage with you in the challenges and opportunities in global policy, economics, and technology that we all boldly face together in the new decade ahead.

Sean & Jeremy

This is part of a series of blogs to help people understand the various ways USD Coin (USDC) powers the crypto ecosystem. The other blogs in this series are available here

In a little over a year since the launch of USD Coin (USDC), it has become one of the most popular quote currencies on digital asset exchanges across the globe. Currently, 60+ exchanges—including Binance, Coinbase Pro, and Poloniex—support the dollar-backed stablecoin. And that number is on the rise.

Why do so many exchanges choose to list USDC when, unlike bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptoassets, it doesn’t grow in value? We answer that question and more in the report below.

If you want to try USDC, find out how at circle.com/tokenizer

This is part of a series of blogs to help people understand the various ways USD Coin (USDC) powers the crypto ecosystem. The other blogs in this series are available here.

USD Coin (USDC) provides crypto traders with an unprecedented level of trust, speed, and ease to move in and out of risk-on trades in the digital asset markets. That’s why more than $1 billion of USDC was issued in its first year alone—making it the fastest-growing stablecoin in the world.

So what are some reasons why traders love USDC?

• It acts as a stable currency
• It allows them to quickly move in and out of trades
• It helps makes exchange arbitrage seamless

To learn more, please download the full use case here:

If you want to try USDC, find out how at circle.com/tokenizer

Today, Circle released the latest attestation report on US dollar reserves backing USDC issued by independent accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP. The report states that as of October 31, 2019 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time:

• USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding = 464,507,005 USDC
• US Dollars held in custody accounts = $464,628,070
• As of the Report Date and Time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody accounts

You can read the full report here. Grant Thornton LLP will provide USDC attestation reports on Circle’s USDC reserves on a monthly basis.

This is part of a series to help people understand the various ways USD Coin (USDC) powers the crypto ecosystem. The other blogs in this series will be available here in the coming weeks.

Crypto over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks are an essential part of the crypto asset trading ecosystem and stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC) play an integral role in making sure OTC desks can efficiently capitalize on market movements.

Crypto OTC desks use USDC for three main reasons: as trading capital, as a quote currency, and as a counterparty settlement instrument.

Prior to the emergence of stablecoins, crypto traders who preferred to remain in crypto used BTC as their quote currency. Due to the volatility of bitcoin, this was not ideal for professional traders. Alternatively, traders could trade fiat-to-crypto by linking up their bank accounts to exchanges but slow wire transfers were a persistent issue for traders.

Today, thanks to stablecoins, traders have the ability to move in and out crypto using fiat currency in tokenized form. Fiat-backed stablecoins like USDC function similarly to cash, but with added flexibility. For OTC desks (and their customers), that means USDC is an extremely effective quote currency to use for trading.

To learn more, please download the full use case here:

If you want to try USDC, find out how at circle.com/tokenizer

This blog is cross posted from the CENTRE Consortium.

More than $50 million in USD Coin (USDC) has been borrowed this year across top platforms, an achievement that highlights the power of DeFi and the benefits of stablecoins.

USDC has reached $50 million in loans originated this year across DeFi platforms Compound, Dharma, and dYdX, according to data from Loan Scan, the most by far of any fiat-backed stablecoin. About 1 in 10 loans originated this year on these platforms has been denominated in USDC. On the flipside, over $146M in USDC has been supplied as collateral across those platforms.

Customers use stablecoins like USDC, Dai, and others for a variety of reasons, including to easily move value across crypto exchanges and to lend and borrow. Investors choose to lend USDC because they can generally earn a lot of interest — sometimes more than 10% annually, depending on the platform and other market factors. (You can see the current interest rates available for USDC and other assets across a range of DeFi platforms by clicking here or here.)

Investors borrow USDC for a variety of reasons. They can use ETH (or some other crypto asset) to collateralize a USDC loan using one of the available DeFi lending platforms, and use the borrowed USDC to buy other crypto assets. Subject to factors such as liquidity and available rates, this enables them to benefit from the wide availability and liquidity of USDC markets.

Customers can also borrow USDC because they know it can be redeemed for $1 — so borrowing USDC is similar to borrowing digital cash. For example, say someone wants to purchase a car worth $10,000 but they don’t want to sell their crypto to pay for it.

Instead, they can use their crypto as collateral for a $10,000 USDC loan, redeem the USDC to their bank account, and buy the car. They then repay their USDC loan and recover their crypto collateral at the end of the term. In fact, I recently did just this to purchase a new SUV for my family. Read about my experience on Twitter.

I expect the amount of USDC in DeFi to continue to grow in the weeks and months ahead organically. It will also grow because Coinbase recently launched the USDC Bootstrap Fund to support developers building DeFi protocols by investing USDC directly in the protocol.

About the CENTRE Consortium

The CENTRE Consortium is a joint venture co-founded by Circle and Coinbase aimed at establishing a standard for fiat on the internet and providing a governance framework and network for the global, mainstream adoption of fiat stablecoins. CENTRE is open for broader membership and is growing its support for fiat stablecoins beyond the US dollar. Learn more here.

About USD Coin (USDC)

Launched in September 2018, USDC is a fully collateralized US dollar stablecoin — meaning it’s backed 1:1 with US dollars. Learn more here.

All trading for US Poloniex customers has ended (effective as of November 1, 2019) and US Poloniex customers should stop depositing immediately and withdraw their assets through the new Poloniex US Withdrawal site poloniexus.circle.com as soon as possible. These changes are a result of Poloniex spinning out from Circle into a new company that is exclusively focused on the international market and no longer serving US customers.

While US Poloniex customers should withdraw their assets as soon as possible, they will continue to have access to all crypto assets through Circle until at least December 15, 2019.

Circle’s other products and services including Circle Trade, Circle Invest, and USDC are not impacted by this change to Poloniex.

How do I withdraw?

US customers can now withdraw the assets they have in their Poloniex wallets from the new Poloniex US website using their Poloniex login credentials. US customers will no longer be able to login through Poloniex mobile applications. Before making a transfer, please pay attention to these rules and exceptions. Learn more

Where can I withdraw my assets to?

You can withdraw to another exchange or to a wallet. To find the exchanges that support an asset, we recommend looking up the asset you're withdrawing on a website like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko. To find a wallet to send your funds to, we recommend downloading the wallet created or recommended by the asset's developers.

How do I contact support?

US customers can contact support here. Non-US Poloniex customers can continue to contact support here.

In an effort to create a competitive internationally-focused cryptocurrency exchange, the Poloniex team and leadership are spinning out from Circle into a new independent international company, Polo Digital Assets, Ltd. Backed by an Asian investment group, the spin-out will bring significant resources and freedom to deliver the product features and marketing strategies needed to be competitive.

Meanwhile, Circle will double down on our efforts to build a more open, global and accessible financial system. This includes significantly expanding the services we offer that are built around USDC, the market’s fastest-growing fiat stablecoin, and expanding and growing SeedInvest, the largest equity crowdfunding platform in the United States.

It is bittersweet for Circle to see this incredible product and business spin out on its own. Nearly 18 months ago, Circle acquired Poloniex with a vision of building a broad digital asset marketplace that included a rapidly growing range of tokens and digital assets. We’ve made enormous progress with Poloniex, including massive infrastructure improvements, adding more fiat options with USDC integration, launching best in class native apps for traders, and building global operations capabilities that can deliver excellent customer service.

But we have also faced challenges as a US company growing a competitive international exchange. This spin-out will finally give Poloniex the freedom and capital to compete in the international market, and the leadership team of Poloniex will be equipped to scale and grow beyond the scope of what Circle can provide.

The new international operation plans to invest more than $100M into the development and expansion of the Poloniex exchange, and plans to employ more than 100 full-time employees with the majority coming from the existing Poloniex operations. Poloniex expects to be hiring aggressively across all major business and technical functions.

This transition will mean some significant changes for existing US customers of Poloniex. As detailed in a separate announcement from the Poloniex team, US customers will no longer be able to trade on the exchange starting on November 1, 2019. US customers will continue to be able to access and use their wallets and withdraw funds through wallet and custody services operated by Circle until at least December 15, 2019.

In addition to aggressive hiring and planning to spend $100M on the business during the next few years, Poloniex is also announcing today that effective October 21st, 2019, all spot trading fees will be reduced to 0% until the end of the year. Poloniex intends to continue beyond that with highly competitive and creative pricing models for traders.

As Poloniex moves on from Circle, we are excited to be able to focus on growing mainstream use cases for payments, investment, lending and fundraising built on the open rails of crypto and public chains.

Over the past six years, Circle has built one of the broadest technology platforms in the crypto industry -- general purpose infrastructure for safely connecting the legacy fiat system with crypto, scaling wallets and blockchain protocols for everyday payments, risk infrastructure to deal with fraud and compliance risk, and a custody solution that has helped secure billions of dollars in digital assets. Starting with APIs for USDC, we plan to open up more of our platform for developers everywhere who want to integrate crypto into their apps and services.

Earlier this year we completed the acquisition of SeedInvest, the largest equity crowdfunding platform in the United States, and have helped hundreds of companies raise hundreds of millions of dollars with internet-based securities offerings. Our plan with this business is to transform how companies raise capital, and open up investment opportunities to people everywhere. We have been working hard to introduce new services built on SeedInvest that allow for fundraising using tokens and digital assets, marrying traditional financial contracts and assets with crypto.

We envision a world with an open financial system:

• Money and value move around the world as easily as any other data on the internet
• People connect to each other through payments, investments, lending, and other economic contracts in a fast, inexpensive, inclusive, safe fashion not controlled by a single company or government but agreed upon by a multitude -- just like they do with information on the internet
• People and businesses raise capital and invest in projects and companies without obtuse, expensive, siloed gatekeeper intermediaries available only to a limited few
• Everyone with a mobile phone has access to the same powerful financial services previously exclusive only to the developed world

Realizing this vision requires an internet of finance, and our mission is to help create that open global internet financial system. Our vision and mission have not wavered since the day we founded Circle, but we must adapt and course-correct our strategy for achieving them.

Jeremy & Sean

Today, Circle released the 12th consecutive report proving that every outstanding USD Coin (USDC) is backed by a US dollar.

This report—and every other report—is publicly available here (and the latest one shows that, as of September 30th, there were 429,470,737 USDC outstanding and $429,965,320 held in custody accounts).

When USDC launched, we said: “As with other technology components, the stablecoin of choice has to be open, interoperable, safe, transparent, and trustworthy.”

Transparency and trustworthiness are essential to the growth of USDC. These attributes are in the DNA of the crypto and blockchain technologies on which USDC was built. We have a responsibility to be transparent about the risks that we manage every day. What's more, customers demand that we take every effort to mitigate risk. Grant Thornton helps us to be transparent with the results of those efforts.

That’s why we’ve enlisted one of the top accounting firms in the world, Grant Thornton LLP, to examine the reserves backing USDC.

"Since November 2018, Grant Thornton LLP has performed a monthly attestation on management’s assertion that the number of USDC tokens issued and outstanding and the US Dollars held in custody accounts are correctly stated, and as of the report date and time, the issued and outstanding USDC tokens do not exceed the balance of the US Dollars held in custody assets," Grant Thornton said in a statement.

USDC has come a long way but this is just the beginning and we’re thankful for everyone who has shared in our success—ecosystem supporters, customers, and the crack accounting team at Grant Thornton. We’re only at the beginning of what’s possible with USDC and hope to share new developments with you soon.

We remain committed to being transparent. If you have any recommendations for how we can improve, please join our growing Discord channel.