The Less “Trust Me Bro,” the Better.
TL;DR
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, is trying to go public.
From a critical perspective - sure, Circle is a regulated private company...but so was FTX.
By going public, Circle will be put under greater scrutiny and drastically reduce its "trust me, bro" factor.
Full Story
We're always looking to reduce our reliance on "trust me, bro" information, in the crypto world.
The more transparency and third-party oversight a project has, the more trustworthy it becomes.
The same way airlines are regulated by government bodies, to ensure they all meet safe maintenance schedules etc.
(But even that's not a guarantee of safety).
And that's why this news story is exciting us...
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, is trying to go public.
Which sounds like a total snooze fest on the surface - but there's more to it!
Circle matches its USDC token to the price of the US dollar, by owning a bunch of (you guessed it) US dollars.
If you buy USDC → Circle uses that money to buy US dollars...
That, and dollar equivalents, like:
Corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and U.S. Treasuries (which are all essentially highly reliable IOU's that return a yield to Circle).
That yield is how Circle makes money from USDC.
At least, that's how the company claims to make its money...
From a critical perspective - sure, Circle is a regulated private company...but so was FTX.
By going public, Circle will be put under greater scrutiny and drastically reduce its "trust me, bro" factor.
(Let's just hope the SEC allows the public listing to happen).