Late Thursday, the companies announced that Coinbase had taken a minor equity stake in Circle, which includes a 50/50 revenue share of interest income going forward.
"Centre will no longer exist as a stand-alone entity and Circle will remain as the issuer of USDC, bringing any Centre governance and operations responsibilities in-house."
The U.S. stablecoin market has been held back by regulatory uncertainty this year, and the market cap for USDC has dropped nearly 42% since the start of the year, according to CryptoQuant.
"All else is in fact not equal as [the] USDC market cap has drifted lower through 2Q23 and interest rates are subject to change."
"The Circle equity stake deepens COIN's exposure to a dwindling asset class … casting doubt about the standalone business model of stablecoins."
Persons:
Coinbase, they're, Alex Markgraff, JPMorgan's Kenneth Worthington, USDC, Ramsey El, Assal, They're, Dan Dolev
Organizations:
Wall Street, Key, Barclays, U.S ., Mizuho, PayPal
Locations:
U.S, Key Banc, stablecoins