Which company co-founded USD Coin with Coinbase?

Circle co-founded USD Coin with Coinbase.

USD Coin, usually abbreviated USDC, is a stablecoin designed to track the value of the U.S. dollar. Circle announced the project in May 2018, and it launched in September 2018 through Centre, a consortium formed as a joint venture between Circle and Coinbase. Bitmain was also an early Centre participant, but it was not the company asked for here.

Unlike Bitcoin, USDC is intended to maintain a relatively stable price rather than operate as a scarce, freely floating asset. Users can acquire tokens through crypto platforms and redeem them through participating services, while the issuer maintains reserves intended to support the tokens in circulation. That makes USDC useful for trading, payments and moving dollar-denominated value across blockchain networks.

A common mix-up is confusing Circle with Centre: Centre was the governing consortium, while Circle was the company that co-founded the project with Coinbase. Coinbase and Circle dissolved Centre in 2023, leaving Circle as USDC’s sole governor.