USDC issuer Circle releases accountant-verified report

Circle, the company that is responsible for issuing USD Coin (USDC), has made public a report that has been validated by an accountant on the treasury reserve assets that support the more than $44.5 billion worth of tokens that are now in circulation.

The present composition of the stablecoin issuer's reserve vault is broken out in the reserve report that Circle published in December 2022 and that was evaluated by the accounting organisation Grant Thornton. According to Circle, there are presently $44,693,963,701 USD held in custody accounts, which support the value of 44,553,543,212 USDC.

It is important to note that a significant chunk of the latter sum is invested in a variety of treasury bonds issued by the United States government. According to Timothy Singh, who serves as the vice president of accounting for Circle, the overall amount of U.S. dollar-denominated assets, which may include a combination of cash and government bonds, is the fair value of the assets held in the USDC reserve.

The reserve fund that Circle uses is officially designated as a government money market fund. Circle is the only owner of the equity interests in the fund, which consist of fourteen distinct types of United States treasury bills and have a combined market value of about $23.5 billion. In addition, the fund has a cash balance of $48.9 million, and it is owed an additional $33 million; however, this amount will be reduced owing to "time and settlement disparities."

Another two United States Treasury securities with a combined value of $10.5 billion are reported in a separate reserve assets category. These securities, along with another $10.5 billion in cash held by various financial institutions on behalf of Circle, bring the total value of reported reserve assets to a total of $20.5 billion.

Bank of New York Mellon, Citizens Trust Bank, Customers Bank, New York Community Bank, Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Silvergate Bank are some of the U.S. institutions that hold Circle's cash reserves. Other U.S. banks include Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank.

At the World Economic Forum that took place in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2023, significant participants that took part in programmes centred on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies included Circle and the payments network Ripple.

Circle's Vice President of Global Policy, Corey Then, said that the group conducted meetings with legislators, conventional enterprises, digital firms, and humanitarian organisations to examine the prospect of using USDC as a payment alternative.

Circle's position as a stablecoin issuer has continually expanded over the last two years, leaving USDC as the second-most-used USD-backed stablecoin, behind Tether. Tether is the most widely used USD-backed stablecoin.