On August 21, 2023, Circle and Coinbase announced the next chapter in their work together, unlocking the next phase of utility for USDC. Having established itself as one of the most widely adopted and trusted digital dollars, USDC has enabled millions of users around the world with the ability to quickly access and move money at scale, growing from an idea to the second-largest stablecoin in the world.
As part of the transaction, USDC will be launching on six new blockchains, bringing multi-chain access of USDC up to 15 to continue accelerating USDC’s momentum with developers around the world. The Centre Consortium, a jointly managed self-governance consortium for USDC, will no longer exist as a stand-alone entity and Circle will remain as the issuer of USDC, bringing any Centre governance and operations responsibilities in-house. As part of the next chapter, Coinbase will take an equity stake in Circle, creating a strategic and economic alignment on the future of the financial system. Coinbase and Circle will continue to generate revenue from USDC reserves interest income. Under the new arrangement, this revenue will continue to be shared based on the amount of USDC held on each of their platforms, and additionally both will now equally share in interest income generated from the broader distribution and usage of USDC.
The Wilson Sonsini team that advised Circle on the transaction include:
Corporate
Adam Bloom
Brandon Middleton-Pratt
M. Faye Shin
Jason Fruchter
Will Andrews
Sam Silverstein
Technology Transactions
Scott McKinney
Andrew Poling
Shivang Patel
Whitman Shaw
Kristin Bradley
Vikki Nguyen
Fintech
Amy Caiazza
Jess Cheng
Josh Kaplan
Corporate Governance
Adrian Broderick
Allurie Kephart
Jane Trueper
Employment and Trade Secrets
Rebecca Stuart
Quinn Christie
Matt Gorman
Regulatory
Ben Labow
Kimberley Biagioli
Edward Ruse
Michael O’Brien
For more information, please see Circle’s blog post.