USDC price

What is USDC

USDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar: each token is designed to be redeemable for one dollar. It is issued by Circle, a US company. USDC launched in September 2018 through Centre, a consortium Circle formed with the Coinbase exchange. Centre was wound down in 2023, leaving Circle as the sole issuer and governor of the token, and Circle listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2025.

Every USDC in circulation is backed by reserves held as cash at banks and in the Circle Reserve Fund, a government money market fund managed by BlackRock that holds short-term US Treasuries and Treasury repos. Circle publishes the reserve breakdown, and a Big Four accounting firm provides monthly assurance that the reserves cover the tokens in circulation. New USDC is minted when Circle’s customers deposit dollars and burned when they redeem. The token lives on many blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon and Stellar, and Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) moves it between them by burning it on one chain and minting it on another.

People use USDC for trading on exchanges, payments, cross-border transfers and as a stable asset in decentralized finance (DeFi). Its main rival is Tether’s USDT. USDC leans on regulation: in July 2024 Circle’s French subsidiary received an e-money license, bringing USDC in line with the EU’s MiCA rules. USDC is no longer supported on TRON: Circle stopped minting it there in February 2024.

What it’s used for

• trading and holding dollar balances on crypto exchanges
• payments and cross-border transfers
• collateral and liquidity in DeFi protocols
• moving dollars between blockchains via CCTP

Risks

• The peg depends on Circle and the banks holding its reserves: in March 2023 the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank pushed USDC below one dollar for several days.
• Circle can blacklist an address at the request of authorities or under sanctions, after which the USDC on it cannot be moved.
• On some networks you will also find bridged versions of USDC (such as USDC.e) that Circle did not issue: they rely on the security of the bridge and cannot be redeemed with Circle directly.