Circle Increases USDC Issuance on Solana: DeFi Market Growth and Regulatory Influence

The American company Circle continues to actively increase the issue of its USDC stablecoin on the Solana network. According to Spot On Chain analysts, an additional 250 million USDC has been issued recently, bringing the total amount of tokens issued since the beginning of 2024 to 8 billion. In the last seven days alone, the company has issued 1 billion USDC, and in January this figure amounted to 6 billion tokens.

The sharp increase in the USDC supply on the Solana blockchain is associated with an increase in activity in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi) and an increase in trading volumes. DeFi projects are increasingly choosing USDC as the main stablecoin, providing settlement stability and liquidity in the market. In addition, one of the growth factors may be the entry into force of the Law on the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies in the European Union (MiCA), which has an impact on the stablecoin market and causes a redistribution of capital among digital assets.

According to DefiLlama, the number of USDC in circulation increased by 16%, and the market capitalization of the stablecoin reached a record $57.19 billion. This indicates the growing demand for USDC among users and investors, which underscores its importance in the digital asset ecosystem.

In addition to increasing the supply of USDC, Circle is actively expanding its presence in the crypto industry. In January, the company acquired the Hashnote platform, specializing in digital asset management. This step allowed Circle to launch a new USYC token, which can play an important role in the further development of the digital finance ecosystem.

Circle also introduced a new Paymaster tool that allows users to pay fees in USDC on the Arbitrum and Base networks. This improves the usability of the stablecoin and reduces barriers to entry into decentralized applications. Another significant step was the addition of USDC support to the Aptos network, which expanded the company’s presence to 16 blockchains.

Over the past year, the turnover of USDC tokens has increased by 78%, and the number of stablecoin holders has exceeded 500 million people. These indicators demonstrate the rapid development of the USDC ecosystem and the increasing role of Circle in the global digital asset market.