USDC

Overview

USDC is a US dollar stablecoin issued and redeemed by Circle Internet Financial, LLC and Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, both subsidiaries of Circle Internet Group, Inc. Circle describes it as "a digital dollar backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets" and redeemable 1:1 for US dollars.

Where the reserve sits

The reserve sits in two places. The majority is held in the Circle Reserve Fund, a government money market fund registered under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Circle Internet Financial, LLC owns 100% of the equity interests in that fund, held on behalf of USDC holders. The remainder sits in segregated accounts at regulated financial institutions, unencumbered and separated from Circle's general corporate funds.

Sources: Circle Transparency and Stability page

Backing and reserves

What Circle publishes

Circle publishes a monthly USDC Reserve Report with an accompanying Independent Accountants' Report. Circle's transparency page states that "a Big Four accounting firm provides monthly third-party assurance" and separately names Deloitte & Touche LLP as Circle's independent auditor since fiscal 2022. The attesting firm for the monthly reserve reports is not named in the extractable text of those reports.

The monthly report is an examination engagement, not an audit of Circle's financial statements. An examination gives an opinion on one narrow management assertion about the reserve, at the report dates.

What is not stated here

The reserve figures themselves are published as PDF examination reports that were not machine-readable at source for this page, so no circulation total, reserve total, Treasury holding, repurchase agreement balance or bank cash balance is stated here. Readers who need those numbers should open the monthly report directly from Circle's transparency page.

What Circle does not disclose

Circle does not name which banks hold the segregated cash portion of the reserve. The overnight repurchase agreement line names no counterparties.

Sources: Circle Transparency and Stability page

Regulation

In the EEA, USDC is issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. It is licensed by the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution as an electronic money institution under ACPR register number 17788.

The MiCA redemption policy gives holders "a right of redemption of their Circle Coins at any time and at par value," subject to eligibility criteria. Circle states the redemption process should take no more than five business days once verifications are complete. Redemption is conditional on identity verification, transaction monitoring and asset freeze checks. Third party bank and conversion fees can apply, and Circle France disclaims responsibility for them.

Sources: Circle Europe MiCA Redemption Policy

Risks

The freeze function

USDC carries an issuer freeze function. Circle can restrict a holder's balance from access to comply with a law, regulation or legal order, and the monthly reserve report discloses the restricted amount as Access Denied Tokens. A holder's balance is contingent on Circle not being ordered to freeze it.

Contract supply overstates backed supply

Circle deducts Tokens Allowed But Not Issued, Access Denied Tokens and Circle Gateway pending burns before arriving at circulation for reserve purposes. Anyone summing raw contract totals across chains will overstate the backed float.

Repo exposure inside the reserve

The reserve is not purely Treasury bills. A material share sits in overnight repurchase agreements. That is exposure to the repo counterparty chain, mitigated by overcollateralization.

Redemption runs through Circle

Redemption at par runs through Circle, not through the chain. Anyone without a Circle Mint relationship exits through secondary markets, where the price can trade away from $1 regardless of reserve adequacy.

Sources: Circle Transparency and Stability page, Circle Europe MiCA Redemption Policy

What this map tracks

The Global Stablecoin Map reads USDC token supply and market price on seven chains: Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche and Optimism. Circle approves USDC issuance and redemption on more chains than those seven, so the on-chain figure shown here is a subset. Treat the coverage as a large majority of circulating USDC, not the full total. The stablecoin explorer shows that read next to every other tracked coin.

What the map cannot see

What is read on chain is contract supply and traded price. The reserve is off chain. No on-chain read can confirm the Circle Reserve Fund balance or the segregated bank cash. That link runs through the monthly examination report and nowhere else.

The Access Denied Tokens and Tokens Allowed But Not Issued adjustments that Circle applies to reach its circulation figure are also not derivable from raw contract supply, so an on-chain supply read will sit above Circle's stated circulation. Circle's other tracked token, USYC, is a fund interest and is covered separately.

Sources: Circle Transparency and Stability page

Common questions