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Circle has released its third attestation report detailing its U.S. Dollar reserves for its USDC stablecoin. The attestation was completed by independent accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, with the results of the report published on Circleâs blog earlier today.
The attestation report is accurate as of December 31, 2018 at 11:59 PM UTC. Hereâs what the report states:
- USD Coin tokens issued and outstanding: 251,211,148 USDC
- US Dollars held in custody accounts: $251,211,209
In other words, the report details that Circle has sufficient US Dollars to match every outstanding USD Coin token, indicating that the token is fully backed 1:1 with the US Dollar.
The report echoes identical reports released in October, November, and December 2018. All three reports have now verified that Circle has sufficient US Dollar reserves to match the circulating supply of its USDC stablecoin.
This shouldnât be a surprise, as Circle launched its USDC stablecoin to be a more transparent and reputable version of other stablecoins on the market. As USDC usage continues to grow, itâs becoming the preferred alternative to more controversial stablecoins like Tether.
Tether recently completed a third party audit that successfully verified its own US Dollar reserves, although some analysts continue to have a problem with Tetherâs banking partnerships.
Meanwhile, USDC usage continues to expand. Yesterday, we reported that Binance was launching trading pairs with USDC and two other stable coins, for example. Earlier this week, another industry news outlet reported that USDC was ârapidly growingâ and that the coin âmay overtake Tether to become [the] top stablecoinâ on the market.â
Over the past week along, the circulating supply of USDC rose $70 million. As we go to press on January 16, there are 361.1 million USDC in circulation. Thatâs still only a fraction of the 1.928 billion Tethers (USDT) in circulation. Itâs also a number higher than the audited reserve amount on December 31, 2018. However, based on Circleâs previous audit history, which has come back with 1:1 reserves every time, itâs assumed that USDC has $70 million more in its bank to correspond with the higher circulating supply.
Hereâs how Grant Thornton LLP sums up its report on USDC:
âAs 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.â
You can view the full Grant Thornton LLP report attesting to USDCâs reserves for the month of December 2018 here: https://www.centre.io/usdc-transparency.
Grant Thornton LLP has performed monthly attestation reports on Circleâs USDC since October. The reports released in October, November, and December have all indicated that Circleâs USDC is backed 1:1 with valid US Dollar reserves.
With USDC supply continuing to rise throughout the month of January, itâs expected that this monthâs report will come back clean once again as USDC solidifies its status as one of the most reputable stablecoins on the market.
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