AUSTIN, Texas — The USDC stablecoin has emerged from March’s banking crisis stronger and safer, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of issuer Circle Internet Financial, said Wednesday.
USD Coin, a critical rail for moving money through the crypto industry, lost its dollar peg in mid-March after Silicon Valley Bank’s failure temporarily imperiled billions of dollars of its cash reserves. Though it quickly recovered ground, the event spooked investors and sparked massive outflows from the second-largest stablecoin.
“We’ve successfully navigated this crisis, and have actually upgraded the market infrastructure behind USDC to be by far the strongest, safest digital dollar on the internet today, hands down, there’s no question,” Allaire said onstage at CoinDesk’s Consensus conference in Austin.
He drew a contrast between USDC and other “alternatives we don’t know much about.” That unspoken competitor was Tether (USDT), long the stablecoin market leader despite some critics’ misgivings about its banking relationships and backing.
But the market disagreed. Since March’s banking crisis, USDC’s market cap has fallen to $29 billion from $39 billion, according to Nansen. Tether, meantime, has grown in size.
Recommended for you:
- Celsius Seeks to Recover Millions From Mashinsky, Other Former Executives
- Web3 Gaming Studio Mythical Games Releases New Marketplace
- FTX’s Failure Highlights Need for Federally Mandated Insurance, Not More Regulation
- Join the Most Important Conversation in Crypto and Web3 in Austin, Texas April 26-28
Still, Allaire said USDC needs to become safer still. He said that can only happen with legislation at the Federal level.
