Circle Plans for Expansion in Asia, Will Invest in Japanese Efforts Towards Yen Stablecoin

Circle, the fast-growing crypto firm and issuer of USDC, gets its expansion plan ready for Asia that includes a regional headquarters in Singapore and investment in Japan’s stablecoin efforts through a new venture firm called Circle Ventures. The company’s growing interest in the Asia crypto market was confirmed by CEO Jeremy Allaire in his interview with Bloomberg.

Why Is Circle Interested in the Crypto Market of Asia?

The principal reason behind Circle consolidating its position in Asia is the expected growth of stablecoins in the borrowing and lending markets. In addition, CEO Jeremy Allaire also commented on the impact of inflation and yield search on market behavior. He believed the former reasons would push the markets towards opening themselves to stablecoins.

In a bid to increase its geographic footprint and offer attractive crypto products, Circle is also releasing its latest interest-yielding product, Circle Yield. The company sees this new product as a steward of capital within the organizations and treasurers and is confident that the stablecoin yield is going to be profitable and an attractive option for everyone.

Circle is also involved in recruitment for its Singapore headquarters as part of its Asia expansion plans. It wants USDC to be the first global stablecoins licensed in the country. Currently, the firm is also working with the authority on a lighthouse project targeted towards USDC adoption by major businesses in Singapore.

Future of Stablecoins

Stablecoins are the future of the crypto economy with already showing a massive growth trend; from $3.7B at the end of 2020, USDC now boats $35B in market value. That’s massive growth within a year and points towards increased adoption in the coming months. The CEO also spoke about businesses looking for short-term dollar-denominated yield instruments due to diminishing returns on the available lying cash. This is where the crypto yield gets more relevant and profit-making.

However, with the possibility of stablecoins being used against fiat currency, it is also attracting regulators’ attention. The Biden administration has already proposed to regulate stablecoin issuers as banks. Circle had recently spoken about the subpoena it received in July from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The crypto market considers stablecoins safer than the rest of the cryptocurrencies despite regulatory scrutiny and overseeing by authorities. Once they enter the mainstream in the world’s biggest markets like the Asian market, the opportunities to grow and multiply within the stablecoin economy would bolster to new levels.

About Circle

Circle is a global fintech company that empowers businesses and developers in their pursuit of harnessing the power of stablecoins for payments and internet transactions. Additionally, it is also the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), the expanding regulated and fully reserved dollar digital currency. Circle is fast moving towards building a new generation of the financial ecosystem that will have global economic prosperity through programmable internet commerce at its core. According to its LinkedIn page, Circle has enabled almost 100 million transactions accounting for tens of billions of dollars covering an impressive 10 million retail customers. It has also secured over $5B in digital currency assets.