USDC Issuer Circle launches onchain compliance platform
Circle Internet Financial, a US dollar coin (USDC) distributor, has launched a suite of blockchain-based compliance products designed to help “companies build onchain and meet compliance requirements,” according to a Sept. 24 social media post by Circle. CEO Jeremy Allaire.
The platform, called Compliance Engine, includes transaction filtering and monitoring tools to detect suspicious transactions and a service that meets Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements such as the United States Travel Act, Allier said.
“We've built tremendous capabilities in this area over the past decade, and now we're taking those capabilities and exposing them to the teams of developers and operations that build financial applications onchain,” Allier said.
Stablecoin active wallets have roughly doubled since 2022. Source: Castle Island Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital
Related: USDC Issuing Circle Adds Arbitrum to Web3 Platform
The Compliance Engine adds to Circle's existing Web3 developer tools – such as a programmable wallet and smart contract platform – all of which are a product of Circle's core USDC stablecoin.
It will initially work on blockchain networks such as Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon POS, Solana, as reported by the Sill website.
The product launch marks Circle's latest bid to accelerate USDC adoption as the stablecoin competes with Tether USDT for market dominance. At around $36 billion, USDC's total market capitalization lags far behind that of rival USDT, which is more than $119 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
In the year PayPal's US dollar stablecoin PYUSD, launched in 2023, has added to the competition. In August, the total market capitalization reached $1 billion.
Compliance is a critical focus for Circle, accelerating the adoption of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including tokenized investment funds.
RWAs could become a multi-trillion dollar market in the coming years, an executive at rival blockchain network Polygon told Cointelegraph in August.
Among the most popular RWAs are those that represent claims on off-chain money market funds, pay low risk in US dollars and often receive payments in USDC.
The largest by assets under management (AUM) are BlackRock Dollar Institutional Digital Liquid Fund (BUIDL) and Franklin Onchain US Government Fund (FOBXX), with approximately $520 million and $430 million in assets under management, respectively.
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