On Monday, Coinbase Global announced it will purchase an equity state in Circle Internet Financial, a cryptocurrency operator, and it will shut down their jointly-managed Centre Consortium, which operates the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).
In a blog post, Coinbase explained that as regulatory oversight of stablecoins is growing in the United States and around the globe, the need for a separate governing body like Centre is now becoming less important. Since Centre is now no longer needed, Circle will take full control over the issuance and governance of USDC. Previously it had only been the issuer of the stablecoin.
Stablecoins are crypto tokens which have their valued pegged to a stable asset, which prevents the coin from experiencing aggressive volatility. USDC had seen its value pegged to the US dollar.
Between September and October, USDC will be launched on six new blockchains by the company, which will increase the multi-chain access of USDC up to 15.
Under a new arrangement, while Coinbase and Circle will still generate revenue from interest income off USDC reserves, that revenue will continue to be shared based upon how much USDC is held on each company’s platform.
Coinbase said, “We will now equally share in interest income generated from the broader distribution and usage of USDC.”