Coinbase and Circle announced that Coinbase is taking an equity stake in Circle. Financial details were not disclosed.
“The nature of the investment means that Coinbase and Circle will now have even greater strategic and economic alignment on the future of the financial system. Coinbase is committed to the long term success of the stablecoin ecosystem and USDC, specifically,” according to a company statement.
“Coinbase and Circle will continue to generate revenue from USDC reserves interest income. Under the parties’ new arrangement, this revenue will continue to be shared based on the amount of USDC held on each of our platforms, and additionally we will now equally share in interest income generated from the broader distribution and usage of USDC.”
In addition, USDC will be launching on six new blockchains between September and October, bringing the multi-chain access of USDC up to 15 to continue accelerating USDC’s momentum with developers around the world.
There will also be a change in governance as Circle and Coinbase shut down Centre Consortium, a jointly managed self-governance consortium for USDC. “With growing regulatory clarity for stablecoins in the US and around the world, the requirement of a separate governance body like Centre, is no longer needed,” the companies wrote.
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 new structure will streamline the operations and governance, and enhance the direct accountability of Circle as the issuer, including holding all the smart contract keys, complying with regulations on governance of reserves and enabling USDC on new blockchains.