Circle, the company behind the popular USDCstablecoin, announced that it is stopping support for individual accounts to mint new USDC tokens. Retail users will still be able to access USDC through exchanges and wallets. This change only impacts individual legacy accounts at Circle and does not affect institutional or business accounts.
The decision sparked speculation on social media after an email to an individual account holder was leaked. Circle’s CEO clarified that they have not allowed new individual accounts for years, just discontinuing leftover old accounts. He assured this is not cause for concern.
Circle is aligning more with competitor Tether’s practice of limiting USDT minting to large institutional investors. This comes amidst declining USDC market share in 2022 compared to USDT.
Stablecoins like USDC face increased scrutiny after incidents like TerraUSD’s collapse. Circle also made cuts this year in response to crypto market conditions, though they maintain the changes are marginal.
The move follows oinbase">Coinbase taking an equity stake in Circle, though both dissolved the Centre Consortium governing USDC. Overall, Circle is scaling back individual stablecoin minting to focus on institutional clients.
