USDC issuer Centre lands Wall Street veteran David Puth as CEO

Centre Consortium, the company behind USD Coin (USDC), has hired former State Street and JPMorgan Chase executive David Puth as its new CEO. 

Centre made the announcement early Tuesday in a Medium post that praised Puth for his leadership credentials. The new hire will help Centre expand its global partnerships across the fintech, crypto and traditional financial services industries.

Puth said that he is excited to be joining Centre “at this critical time in the industry,” adding:

“The growth of USDC over the course of 2020 is indicative of what I expect will be the path for Centre business activities and that of future Centre-supported stablecoins.”

Prior to joining Centre, Puth served in several leadership capacities at R3, CLS Group, State Street and JPMorgan.

Puth is one of many Wall Street veterans trickling into digital asset management as blockchain adoption continues to spread beyond the early adopter phase. A similar trend is occurring on the investor side, with major institutions expressing interest in Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Centre’s USD Coin was developed by Circle and Coinbase to aid in crypto adoption. With a market capitalization of just under $3 billion, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether.

Stablecoins are likely to serve an ever-growing function as blockchain and traditional finance continue to merge. Centre says it maintains “full reserves of the equivalent fiat currency” that is used to back the USDC stablecoin.

At press time, the total market cap of all stablecoins was just under $25.3 billion.

Beyond stablecoins, Centre said digital assets and blockchains are “heralding the most significant transformation of the international monetary system since the formation of the Bretton Woods system more than 75 years ago.”