Circle Is Now Closer to Launching Its Coinbase Wallet-Building Competitor

Circle today announced a new programmable crypto wallet service for developers. The service will allow those building applications to “embed secure wallets within minutes.” 

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said on Twitter Thursday that Circle had “quietly released the first major milestone” of its Web3 Services arm. 

Web3 Services is Circle’s suite of tools for developers to “build delightful Web3 apps fast.”

The fintech firm behind stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), the fifth largest digital asset, described the product on its website: “Seamlessly embed wallets into your existing UI for a delightful and streamlined user experience that your customers expect.”

It added that it would be “blockchain agnostic,” meaning developers can use the wallet across multiple blockchains with no blockchain-specific code. The company added that the programmable wallets currently support Ethereum, Polygon and Avalanche, “with other chains coming soon.” 

This product isn’t the only one by a crypto company: Earlier this year, America’s biggest digital asset exchange Coinbase launched a “wallet as a service” business allowing companies to customize blockchain wallets for their own customers.

Circle is a Boston-based company which builds products for the crypto space. Its most well-known product is USDC—a digital token pegged to and backed by U.S. dollar reserves. 

USDC, the fifth largest digital asset, is considered important in the crypto world because it is a well-used stablecoin. Stablecoins are assets that aren’t as volatile as Bitcoin or Ethereum. They are useful for traders who need to quickly enter and exit trades without dealing with fiat currency or a traditional bank account. 

Circle CEO Says 'Regulate Us' as Company Hires an Ex-Regulator

Circle, the fintech firm behind one of crypto’s largest stablecoins, named Heath Tarbert its new chief legal officer on Thursday, taking on the ex-regulator as an executive amid a double-tap of enforcement actions against exchanges from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Tarbert will also become Circle’s head of corporate affairs when he officially starts at the company in July, leaving behind his role as chief legal officer at Citadel Securities, the titanic market-making firm founde...

Last month, German software giant SAP announced it would use USDC to test cross-border payments.

USDC has a market cap of $27.4 billion and in the past 24 hours, over $4 billion in USDC has traded hands on exchanges, according to CoinGecko.