tl;dr
USDC tells us the way forward for the stablecoin revolution.
Market Snap
Market Wrap
The last four trading days have seen spot BTC ETF inflows of over $2bn. You have got to like that.
I note that so far, Q3 2026 is the best third quarter for ETH since 2016. That does matter, for it suggests that the recent recovery in the price of BTC is attracting attention to ETH, and by extension, other quality alts.
For anyone who continues to hoard lower tier alts in the hope that they will return to levels seen in 2021 – forget it. That is just not going to happen. Take the loss (and the associated tax credit or tax relief, for that is the only favour you will get from the government anytime soon) and rotate into your personal list of quality alts. If you do not yet have that list, then may I gently suggest getting out of investing in alts entirely.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Circle, Binance, and Mastercard
Circle Inc., the issuer of USDC, the world's largest regulated dollar stablecoin, has long had a close relationship with Coinbase Inc. Coinbase receives a share of the investment returns that Circle makes on its reserves, and in exchange Coinbase promotes the use of USDC. Anyone with a Coinbase account can deposit fiat, then swap into USDC with costs at a fraction of a cent. The USDC can be transferred on Base (Coinbase’s own Ethereum Layer-2) to any wallet, any centralised cryptocurrency exchange, or any DeFi platform that is linked up with Base. Which is pretty much all of them. And the cost of the transfer? Zero. At least for now.
Binance and Circle have announced that Binance has bought $100mm of Circle stock in a private placement (at a discount of course, this time of 5%. The TradFi culture that harms retail investors relative to institutional investors is going to take some time to break). Binance has entered into a five-year agreement to promote USDC in exchange for a revenue-sharing split. As a long-term, unsolicited, and unpaid promoter of USDC, for purely altruistic reasons, the CCC is feeling a lack of love on this topic. I must phone me old mucker, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle Inc. this afternoon to rectify that situation.
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USDC volumes for June surpassed an extraordinary $1.2 TRILLION of value, at virtually no cost to the users. In comparison to the rapacious demands of TradFi, sometimes of up to 30% of the value of small transactions typically initiated by the diaspora of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, Circle Inc. is a force for good for humankind. June also marked the month when USDC accounted for more than two-thirds of stablecoin volumes.
Its key competitor, USDT, issued by Tether which has a non-compliant attitude towards regulation much like Binance when it was under the control of man-child Changpeng Zhao, is quietly losing ground. Which can only be a good thing.
Circle has announced the launch of Arc, its own Layer-1 blockchain with over 100 applications already live. Transactions are settled almost instantaneously, for virtually no fees. Though as it is EVM-compatible (Ethereum Virtual Machine) perhaps it should be described as a Layer-1 and a half?
Jeremy explains the vision:
"USDC was step one. Arc is the network built for what comes next. The agentic economy and the onchain economy are not two different revolutions; they are the same economy seen from two sides, and both need infrastructure that never closes, settles in under a second, and is trusted by the institutions that anchor the global financial system."
BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, and Visa are all involved as founding validators. Circle has ambitions to create the foundations for the emerging onchain economy, and great strides are being made towards that goal.
Why does this matter?
The key point is that as stablecoins begin to be the basis for all financial transfers in the future, regulated and compliant USDC is a far better option than unregulated and uncompliant USDT.
The second point, I know, will prove to be controversial to some. I bring it to your attention because it is very important. No assumptions should be made about the CCC’s editorial view on this matter.
The stablecoin revolution will embed and enhance dollar hegemony in the financial world. The deal that Henry Kissinger struck with Saudi Arabia to recycle oil revenues into US Treasuries in the 1970s was a statement of intent and had the desired result.
The dominance of dollar stablecoins will be an even more dramatic development.
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For disclosure purposes, the CC Treasury has core holdings in COIN, CRCL, and BNB, the token native to the BNB Chain owned by Binance, the latter stored securely off-site with multi-signature protection which is true of all the cryptos held as investments by CC. Any wrench attack on the employees of Curious Cryptos Ltd. will simply damage your wrench with no upside and a lengthy prison sentence to boot.