Stablecoins have become rather frequently discussed in the news and social media over the past few weeks, especially with the news of the release of the Facebook-backed Libra coin. The current wave of stablecoin issuance could be attributed to the lack of liquidity in the cryptocurrency world. But even though the crypto market is now slowly recovering from a long bear trend, the ecosystem of stablecoins continues to expand even further. One of the most notable events in the stablecoin space was a recent announcement by Circle and Coinbase. After launching its own digital dollar — called USD Coin (USDC) …

The Roybal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has hired a former executive from cryptocurrency finance firm Circle, according to a report by the Financial Times on June 18. Marieke Flament, who formerly worked as the European managing director of Circle, will reportedly join RBS as CEO of Mettle, its digital service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Mettle has reportedly been operational since November 2018, and RBS is aiming to roll out a standalone version of the service in August. Flament commented on potential for financial disruption in the SME sector with Mettle, saying: “There is a huge opportunity for disruption …

Peer-to-peer payments technology firm Circle is closing its payment app Circle Pay in order to develop new crypto financial services, according to an announcement published on June 13. Per the blog post, Circle will start terminating the operation of Circle Pay, a fiat money sending service with a social messaging component, from July 8, 2019, and will fully close support for the app on Sep. 30. Specifically, on July 8 the app’s users will no longer be able to add or send money to anyone through their Circle Pay account. Circle further hinted that it is delving into new blockchain-based …

Goldman Sachs-backed crypto startup Circle and crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase are expanding their consortium behind USD coin (USDC), according to a blog post on June 13. The Centre consortium acts as a platform for deposits and fiat conversions for Circle’s own cryptocurrency, a United States dollar-backed digital token. Having launched USD coin back in September 2018, Circle has now announced that Centre is opening up for more members and industry participation. In the post, Centre wrote that Circle and Coinbase have been working to create and establish its Centre Network as a “membership-based framework and governance scheme.” Inviting …

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has added support for EOS, according to a press release on May 30. The new addition is reportedly available for trading and storage in most areas covered by Coinbase, with the exception of the United Kingdom and New York at press time. The announcement also notes that there are no transaction fees associated with EOS; the cost is instead paid in computing resources, such as a tax on RAM, CPUs, or network bandwidth. Users that run the network also earn EOS by contributing to the computational power needed to run transactions. …

Major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that its cryptocurrency payment processor Coinbase Commerce now supports Circle’s stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) in a blog post on May 20. Per the announcement, Coinbase Commerce users can now accept USDC payments with no transaction fees. The announcement specifies that “unlike accepting credit card payments, merchants can accept USD Coin without geographical limitations or the need for a traditional bank account.” Additionally, Coinbase states that accepting stablecoins allows merchants to benefit from cryptocurrency transactions while avoiding the volatility characteristic of un-pegged digital assets. A recent report by the European Central Bank found that …

Cryptocurrency research firm Diar indicates that the market capitalization for USD stablecoins has hit all-time highs and exceeded $4 billion, according to its latest weekly report published on May 21. Stablecoins tied to the greenback have broken through to a market cap of almost $4.3 billion, according to Diar’s data. The report also reveals a surge in USD stablecoin trading volumes, with Circle and Coinbase-backed USD Coin (USDC) posting a 130% uptick in volume between April and May, so far this month hitting $3.6 billion (as compared with $1.6 billion in April). As Diar notes, USDC’s trading volume increase since …

The CEO of Goldman Sachs-backed crypto finance startup Circle blamed a hostile regulatory climate in the United States as he confirmed layoffs of 30 staff on social media May 21. Following a blog post in which he described the difficulties operating in the U.S., Jeremy Allaire said that executives had taken the decision to release roughly one in ten of Circle’s employees. “Today we made organizational changes at Circle and eliminated approximately 30 positions, which is about 10% of our employees,” he wrote. Allaire stated: “We made these changes in response to new market conditions, most importantly, an increasingly restrictive …

The cryptocurrency space needs regulatory certainty and the current definition of cryptocurrency is too broad, said the CEO of crypto finance startup CIrcle, Jeremy Allaire, in a blog post on May 20. Allaire’s statement comes in the wake of the “geofencing” of nine different coins for United States-based clients of digital currency exchange Poloniex, which is owned by Circle Internet Financial. Poloniex said then that the decision was motivated by the uncertain regulatory environment in the country. In the recent post, Allaire stated that digital assets represent a fundamental new class of financial instrument and should not be considered securities, …

Goldman Sachs-backed crypto finance startup Circle has published the latest third-party audit of its USD-pegged stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC). The company reported the update in a blog post published on May 17. USD Coin is an Ethereum-based token compliant with the ERC20 standard that was first announced in May last year and released in September. Per this week’s announcement, the audit of the coin’s fiat reserves was conducted by major Chicago-based accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP. The report released by the firm states that as of April 30, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time there were 293,184,174 USDC issued, and …

SeedInvest, the equity crowdfunding platform owned by crypto-friendly payment giant Circle, has gained approval to offer secondary shares trading, crypto industry news outlet The Block reported on April 26. The platform, which Circle bought out for an undisclosed sum in March this year, can now allow its users to trade startup shares via its accreditation as an Alternative Trading System. The company got the go-ahead from the United States Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a month after gaining initial regulatory approval. At the time, Circle praised SeedInvest for its input in aiding the U.S. startup investment scene, notably through its …

The custodians of global financial order have been prominent in crypto news recently. The weekend kicked off with the announcement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) joining forces with the World Bank to launch a private blockchain coupled with a “quasi-cryptocurrency” for training purposes, then continued with the Spring Meetings of the two organizations’ Boards of Governors in Washington, D.C., which ran throughout the whole week. Although it would be an overstatement to claim that distributed ledgers were particularly conspicuous on the forum’s overall agenda, the program included a series of fintech workshops, as well as at least a couple …