China News Daily TheBitTimes.com

Circle’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC has officially gone live on the layer-1 chain Aptos (APT). Aptos’ native token, APT, is up on the news, surging by 5.5% in the past 24 hours. The 38th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is trading at $7.91 at time of writing. Coinbase, the top US crypto exchange, has already added Aptos-native USDC to its listing roadmap. In November, Aptos first announced that it planned to integrate USDC, as well as the fintech giant Stripe’s payment services. Stripe will provide a fiat on-ramp for the Aptos network. The payments firm reemerged in the crypto sector in October when it rolled out support for USDC settlements. It had previously enabled payments made using Bitcoin (BTC) until 2018, when the firm discontinued its support, citing BTC’s lack of utility as a payments rail. Native USDC stablecoins are officially issued by Circle and are redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin with a market ...

Stablecoins are an important part of the cryptocurrency economy and the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, currently dominated by two corporations. One of them, Circle’s USDC, raised its redemption fees for the second time in 2024, driving demand for stablecoin alternatives. As Bloomberg originally reported and Unchained covered further, Circle increased the “standard” redemption fees for USDC on October 29. The “standard” redemption tier applies for holders who want to skip the usual two-day waiting period for “basic” redemptions, getting their dollar amount instantly but for a higher fee price. Analysts discussed this fee raise may slow down demand for USDC from institutions and millionaires for trading, investments, and reserves. Interestingly, the decision came amid a loss of market share to Tether’s USDT, which surpassed a $120 billion capitalization with over 70% dominance, as Finbold reported. ...