Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has formed a strategic partnership with stablecoin giant Circle to accelerate global adoption of the USDC stablecoin, the companies said on Wednesday at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Through the partnership, Circle’s USDC will be more extensively available to over 240 million customers for trading, savings and payments. Binance will also adopt the second-largest stablecoin as “a vital dollar stablecoin” for its own corporate treasury, according to a press release.
“Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading, and other products on Binance,” Binance CEO Richard Teng said in a statement.
Staunch competition for growth exists between Circle, which has $40 billion worth of USDC in circulation, and its bigger rival Tether, whose USDT stablecoin has a market capitalization of about $140 billion.
Circle has typically cast itself as the more regulated stablecoin, so the high-profile tie-up suggests Binance is charting a path that complies with global regulation. Binance settled U.S. allegations last year by paying more than $4 billion.
Asked if this was a conscious choice to be more compliant with regulations, a Binance spokesperson said via email: “Our users want choices. We always work with multiple stablecoins. Today we support USDT, USDC, FDUSD, and a bunch of others. And we will continue to work with multiple stablecoin issuers or creators.”
As well as a tool for simply buying and selling other cryptocurrencies, U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins can be used to hedge inflation in developing countries or facilitate lower-cost and efficient remittances, a Binance spokesperson said. Each USDC and USDT token is worth close to $1.
“With Binance rapidly becoming the world’s leading financial super app, and stablecoin adoption and utility at the core of this future financial system, this is a tremendous opportunity for USDC as it becomes ubiquitous on the Binance platform,” Jeremy Allaire, chairman and CEO of Circle, said in a statement.
Also in the UAE this week, Circle established an Abu Dhabi partnership with LuLu Financial Holdings to facilitate remittances and cross-border payments with USDC.
Tether has also been at large in the region, with news that USDT is now an “Accepted Virtual Asset,” with the blessing of regulators in Abu Dhabi Global Market.