Circle is a fintech firm providing peer-to-peer payment technology. Through its platform, Circle enables consumers and businesses to make payments to one another using their mobile devices. It has been established with the belief that there is a better way to move money.
The idea for Circle was conceived in 2012 when three friends, Sean Neville, Jeremy Allaire, and John Collison, discussed how to solve the challenge of securely storing digital currency online. They recognized that in order to accelerate the adoption of the digital currency they needed to address the most common complaint with Bitcoin: its volatility. In 2013, Sean and Jeremy founded Circle Internet Financial Limited. Circle was granted an e-money license by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. The company set out to build a new kind of payment network that could be used anywhere in the world, across currencies, borders, and devices.
Today Circle is on a mission to make money work the way it should — safe, simple, free, and instant — everywhere people want it.
Circle launched USDC (a stablecoin) in 2018, which is backed by $1 or an asset with equal value.
With the launch of USD Coin, Circle is making the price stability and immutability of blockchain technology available to any business, project, or developer.
USD Coin is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. Dollar with a 1:1 ratio. It is an easy way to move money into, out of, and across crypto applications, exchanges, and protocols — providing a much-needed anchor for decentralized finance.
USD Coin is also a tool for innovators in traditional industries who can use it to explore new business models while avoiding the volatility risk linked to cryptocurrency, whether they're looking to send payments more efficiently or manage their cash flow more effectively. Finally, USD Coin makes it possible for consumers and businesses everywhere to participate in the crypto economy by exchanging USDC with the “native token” of any network they want to join, like Ethereum or Stellar.