The Celo Foundation has announced that Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) will be launched natively on the Celo blockchain. This move will expand Celo’s use cases for real-world assets and enhance the convertibility of USDC into fiat currencies.
As the Celo blockchain transitions from being an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer-1 chain to an Ethereum layer-2 protocol, USDC will join Celo’s native proof-of-stake governance token, CELO (CELO). The Celo community will soon vote on a proposal to make USDC the gas currency for the ecosystem.
In addition to the cUSD stablecoin issued by Mento Lab, Celo also supports other stablecoins such as cEuro, cREAL (pegged to the Brazilian real), and eXOF (pegged to the West African CFA franc).
Celo prides itself on being part of the regenerative finance movement, emphasizing its carbon-neutral and mobile-first approach. The platform focuses on leveraging mobile technology to enhance the user experience in emerging economies. In September, the Opera web platform introduced its MiniPay wallet on Celo, specifically targeting African users with mobile phones. Shamus Noonan, Circle’s senior business development manager, expressed excitement about the integration of USDC on Celo.
The Celo Foundation stated that the integration of USDC will provide institutional and enterprise users with access to the Circle Mint on/off-ramp, thereby facilitating increased activity on the Celo blockchain.
USDC, with a market cap of $26.5 billion, is currently the second-largest stablecoin, trailing only Tether (USDT) with a market cap of $96.1 billion. It has reportedly filed for an initial public offering in the United States.
Circle has been expanding its global presence, with conditional registration as a virtual assets service provider in France and a partnership with Japanese financial services firm SBI to introduce USDC in Japan. Since 2020, Circle has had a partnership with global payments processor Visa and has expanded cooperation using USDC issued on Ethereum and Solana.
However, Circle has faced allegations of connections to money laundering, which it has vehemently denied.
In a recent magazine interview, Rene Reinsberg of Celo was asked six questions about the platform and its future plans.