Circle Sees Opportunity For USDC In Asia, Plans Office In Singapore

The company behind the USDC stablecoin – Circle – has plans to establish regional headquarters in Singapore. According to a report, the company will also invest in a stablecoin backed by the Japanese yen through its new project – Circle Ventures.

According to Bloomberg, Circle – the issuer of the 2nd largest stablecoin, USDC – expects significant growth in the use of stablecoins. According to Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, the Asian markets are full of opportunities and suitable for the potential developments of USDC or the industry leader Tether.

“Especially in the inflation environment we’re in and the search for yield, this is going to be a big, big theme. While a lot of people want to focus on people hedging by buying bitcoin directly, we think for stewards of capital within corporations and corporate treasures and so on, that an allocation into stablecoin yield is actually going to be really, really attractive.”

Allaire said his firm aims to be among the first stablecoin issuers licensed to operate in Singapore. He also revealed that Circle is also working in collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to “establish a lighthouse project around the adoption of USDC for major Singapore businesses.”

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies which value is tied to an outside asset – for example, fiat currencies or gold – to stabilize the price. They have grown significantly alongside the broader digital asset space throughout the past few years, reaching a market capitalization worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Allaire believes that stablecoins will have more use cases in the next two years, like incorporating them for payments, Foreign Exchange (FX), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and others.

Stablecoin Issuers Should Be Regulated as Banks

POTUS Working Group on Financial Markets (PWS) earlier this month released their much-anticipated regulatory report on stablecoins. Agreeing with the usefulness, the government entity admitted they allow for “faster, more efficient, more inclusive payment option.” However, there is concern about their use in illicit financial operations and money laundering. In order to mitigate the risk, the report encouraged international collaboration.

PWS report also proposed to regulate companies like Circle as an insurer national depository institution under the Fed’s supervision. To a large extent, Allaire agreed with those requirements. He noted that looking at the volume of stablecoins in circulation and the number of transactions completed with the asset class, the proposed regulation could result in broader adoption: