By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 29th, 2024
Robinhood’s partnership with USDC comes at a time that stablecoins are subject to criticisms and intensified scrutiny.
Brokerage firm Robinhood has teamed up with Circle – the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), to expand the uses of the stablecoin to its platform’s users. The partnership was announced via a press release on Wednesday, amid an ongoing intense scrutinization of stablecoins across the board.
With this partnership, however, Robinhood users will now enjoy access to trade (buy, sell, or transfer) the USDC. That includes users on both Robinhood Crypto and the new Robinhood Wallet.
Robinhood Lists Its First Stablecoin
According to brokerage platform Robinhood, USDC makes the total number of assets on its platform 17. And more importantly, the stablecoin becomes the first ever to be listed thereon.
Meanwhile, the partnership will be a progressive one. Per the press release, the partners also have plans to build in-app educational modules. The idea is to enable users to learn the basics of USDC and stablecoins in general. Interestingly, the education will also be incentivized as customers who complete the courses may earn rewards in USDC.
Speaking about the partnership, an elated Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire was full of praises for what he called a “celebrated” Robinhood platform. But he was also quick to highlight the role of USDC as a major player in payments. He said:
“The launch of USDC on a celebrated consumer platform like Robinhood reinforces the role USDC plays in greater payments and commerce use cases.”
Robinhood also believes that the partnership is a great way to expose its customers to the Web3.0 experience while shielding them from the market’s volatility.
Widespread Criticism
It’s noteworthy that Robinhood’s partnership with USDC comes at a time that stablecoins are subject to criticisms and intensified scrutiny. This follows after the collapse of the major stablecoin TerraUSD in May. That incident led to a broader market downturn which saw billions of dollars wiped off the crypto market.
In fact, the ripple effect of that crash continued, causing crypto firms such as Celsius and Voyager Digital to file for bankruptcy. Not to mention the massive layoffs that also took place as crypto firms struggled to stay afloat.
To forestall a recurrence, a draft bill was proposed by US lawmakers in July. That bill will see stablecoin issuers facing regulations similar to those in the banking industry.
For what it’s worth though, USDC is the second largest stablecoin with over $50 billion in circulation today. And the stablecoin also boasts of a reserve fully backed by cash.