BNY Mellon to become primary custodian for Circle’s USDC stablecoin reserves

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Peer-to-peer payments processor Circle Internet Financial today announced that it has chosen the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, also known as BNY Mellon, to become a primary custodian for its USD Coin (USDC) reserves.

In the press release, Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire noted:

“As we continue to see exponential growth in USDC, the opportunity to work with BNY Mellon is one way we build bridges between traditional financial services and emerging digital asset markets, without sacrificing trust. Together, we will leverage our respective areas of expertise to innovate and build the financial ecosystem of the future.”

Building trust, stability and resilience in the digital asset economy is foundational to our mission. Alongside @BNYMellon we’re creating a stable and resilient financial ecosystem for the future.https://t.co/Asq1yzgM7w

— Circle (@circlepay) March 31, 2022

Bridging traditional and digital finance

USD Coin is currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency thanks to its market capitalization (the total current price of all USDC tokens in circulation) of about $51.8 billion, according to CryptoSlate.

Per the press release, the new partnership between Circle and 237-year-old BNY Mellon will “facilitate an exchange of expertise on a range of topics across digital and traditional markets.”

This includes integration of traditional and digital capital markets, investment management, digital asset custody, cash management for fiat and non-fiat payments, and the “exploration of digital cash for purposes of settlement.”

Great to see. Congrats to my friends @circle and @BNYMellon.

Nice job. https://t.co/hIibNli7Nm

— John W. |🇮🇪🇺🇸🇪🇸🇪🇺| (@_JohnWhelan) March 31, 2022

BNY Mellon’s appointment as a primary USDC custodian also “supports the broader marketplace and brings value to clients, founded on our role at the intersection of trust and innovation,” said Roman Regelman, the bank’s CEO of asset servicing and head of digital, adding:

“We are at a point in the evolution of our industry where the digitization of assets is presenting new and exciting opportunities to a broad range of market participants. BNY Mellon continues to provide products and services to players in this evolving market.”

As CryptoSlate reported, USDC has been silently catching up to Tether’s USDT stablecoin over the past months. Still, with a market capitalization of just over $82 billion, the latter is currently the largest dollar-pegged coin in the sector—but it looks like the race is on.