Circle

Circle is a United States financial-technology company. It is the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin designed to hold a value of one US dollar per token. Circle creates new USDC when customers deposit dollars and removes tokens from circulation when customers redeem them for dollars.

The dollars that back USDC are held in reserves. Circle states that these reserves are kept in cash and in short-term US Treasuries, held with regulated financial institutions. It publishes regular attestations from a third-party accounting firm that report on the reserves supporting the tokens in circulation.

USDC runs on several public blockchains as a token that anyone can send or receive. As with any stablecoin, its dollar value depends on the issuer maintaining sufficient reserves and honoring redemptions. A token can trade away from one dollar during periods of market stress, a movement known as a depeg.