USD Coin (USDC) is an Ethereum-based stablecoin pegged to the price of exactly one US dollar. At any given time, you can redeem one USDC for one USD. Every USDC issued is backed by real-world assets including cash and short-term US Treasuries held in regulated institutions. These reserves are independently audited every month to ensure USDC maintains its tethered price. Despite starting out as an Ethereum-based stablecoin project, USDC is now natively available on over 15 blockchains, including Solana, Stellar and Polygon.
The coin is governed by Circle, which is a membership-based consortium that sets standards for stablecoins. USDC has rapidly grown into one of the largest stablecoins in the entire globe. It can be used by institutions, individuals and DeFi users for a swathe of different purposes.
USDC became the first stablecoin to officially meet MiCA compliance, a strict set of guidelines adopted by the European Union for pegged digital currencies.