• Circle and the CENTRE consortium choose to issue USDC on Stellar because of its rapid growth and features.
• The USDC edition on Stellar expands the use cases and enhances the possibility of integrating DeFi applications.

Senior Strategist for the Stellar Development Foundation, Lisa Nestor, gave an interview to the Sam Conner podcast. There, she acknowledged that despite the difficulties of 2020, Stellar Lumens was able to grow and “reach very big milestones.”

One of the focuses of the interview was the cooperation between Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and Circle. Nestor stated that the latter has strived to be “a top tier asset issuer.” Their integration with the Stellar ecosystem represents the addition of new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs operating on this blockchain.

As reported by CNF, Circle and Coinbase are the parent companies of the CENTRE consortium, the issuer of the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). Last year it was announced that CENTRE would issue USDC on Stellar, Algorand, and Solana to be more independent of Ethereum. The stablecoin was deployed on Stellar on February 2 this year. Nestor stated:

In the end, Circle wants USDC to be as widely used as possible. I think that’s their strategy. They want to see a lot of USDC minted, they want to see growth in terms of how it’s used, who holds it, how much it circulates. I think of the options they had, Stellar is the fastest-growing ecosystem.

The Senior Strategist for SDF highlighted that the Stellar blockchain can process more USDC transactions at a lower cost. The high cost of fees in Ethereum has become one of the most present problems for the blockchain currently. Members of the crypto community have reported payments of up to $100 for “just using a token.”

In addition, Nestor believes that on Stellar there are “many, many use cases” with “exciting” payment opportunities. Conner’s data records that in the first week of the cooperation, more than $5 million USDC has already been issued to 555 holders of the asset. Nestor stated that there is a lot of potential for this number to grow in the future:

There is a lot of migration still happening from various applications starting to integrate USDC. Sometimes they may need to upgrade (…) USDC in the US is exciting, USDC anywhere in the world is groundbreaking and I think that’s the real opportunity that Stellar brings to the table.

Stellar enters the DeFi ecosystem

Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon said a few days ago that they will prioritize the decentralized finance sector during 2021 and revealed that there are proposals to integrate smart contracts into the Stellar blockchain.

In that regard, Nestor believes USDC could be the hinge that allows the Stellar ecosystem to expand into the DeFi sector. According to her, there is a lot of potential for users to make cross-border payments related to lending, and borrowing. The fact that USDC is a “well-regulated” asset from a company with a “good reputation,” Nestor added, makes the decision to use DeFi applications on Stellar easier for everyone.

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