DeFI News by Thebittimes.Com

Google Cloud is launching its own layer-1 blockchain for financial institutions, taking on Ripple, Circle, and Stripe in payments. Google Cloud’s Web3 Head of Strategy, Rich Widmann, shared new details about the blockchain, called the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), in an Aug. 26 post on Linkedin .  “GCUL brings together years of R&D at Google to provide financial institutions with a novel Layer 1 that is performant, credibly neutral and enables Python-based smart contracts,” Widmann wrote.  “Besides bringing to bear Google’s distribution, GCUL is a neutral infrastructure layer,” Widmann added.  “Tether won’t use Circle’s blockchain – and Adyen probably won’t use Stripe’s blockchain.  But any financial institution can build with GCUL.”   By moving into blockchain payments infrastructure, Google Cloud is positioning itself to compete over the financial rails that coul...

Circle’s USDC is the world’s second largest US dollar stablecoin, currently with one-third of Tether’s USDT capitalization and circulating tokens. This scenario could soon shift as Circle announces a key partnership with the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. On December 11, Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, and Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, announced the partnership at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. As communicated, Binance will adopt USDC for its US dollar corporate treasury and integrate USDC with its products and services. “Circle is without a doubt one of the most trusted and innovative companies in the digital asset ecosystem, and USDC is one of the preeminent products in the world. Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading, and other products on Binance.” – Richard Teng, Binance CEO ...

Circle, the issuer of the second largest stablecoin by capitalization, USD Coin (USDC), has entered into a partnership agreement with Tokyo-based financial services company SBI Holdings. SBI Group and Circle have also committed to properly complying with regulations related to stablecoin s, including communication with authorities. To circulate USDC stablecoin s in Japan, SBI VC Trade Co., Ltd. (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo) is seeking registration as an electronic payment instrument service, which is subject to government approval. The goal of the collaboration is to adapt the token and its own Web3 services in Japan, Circle says on its website. The parties came to an agreement against the backdrop of active work by the Japanese authorities on the formation of legal standards for stablecoin s. You might also like: Japan to lift its ban on foreign stablecoins in 2023 “Our partnership with SBI Holdings represents a shared vision for the future of digital currency, and is...

Circle published a new standard that allows developers to launch an unofficial bridged version of USDC that can later become native and official. Circle has launch ed a new standard to streamline the process of launch ing its stablecoin, USDC, on new networks , according to a Nov. 21 blog post.  The new “bridged USDC standard” allows developers to launch the token through a two-phase process. In the first phase, the third-party developer has control of the token contracts, and the token on the new network is backed by a native version on another network. In the second phase, Circle takes control of the contracts, and the token becomes backed directly by Circle’s reserves. The second phase may not occur with all deployments. Introducing Bridged USDC Standard, a new way to expand access to $USDC & reduce fragmentation. EVM blockchain & rollup teams can now deploy a bridge d USDC token contract with optionality for Circle to seamlessly upgrade to native issuance in the future.h...