- Coinbase turns its focus to funding stablecoin-based startups following the surge of its partly-funded stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC).
- USDC, the dollar-backed stablecoin, reached a total market cap of $2 billion on Wednesday and the latest investment from Coinbase is to celebrate the milestone.
- The exchange did not disclose how much funding is being set aside for the project.
In a blog post this Wednesday, Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of Coinbase, issued a ‘Request For Startups’ funding pool to pull developers to build USDC-backed projects. According to the statement, Coinbase is celebrating the latest milestone by USDC, a stablecoin built by Center, a collaboration between Coinbase and payments provider, Circle.
USD Coin (USDC) reached $1B in market cap 21 months after its 2018 launch. Going from $1B to $2B only took 2 months. We’re marking this milestone with a Request for Startups: If you’re building new applications with stablecoins, we want to hear from you. https://t.co/rhvHCpB8j3
— Coinbase (@coinbase) September 16, 2020
USDC has witnessed a surging demand in 2020, reaching the $1 billion market cap in July – 21 months after its launch. Less than two months later, the stablecoin is celebrating the $2 billion market cap milestone that has led Coinbase to fund development on stablecoin-backed startups.
The San-Francisco based exchange will use its USDC Bootstrap Fund, a pool that funds developers building decentralized finance products using USDC, to invest in these startups. The statement reads,
“In celebration of USDC’s tremendous growth, and the rapid rise of stablecoins as an important crypto innovation, we’re issuing a Request for Startups.”
“Coinbase Ventures and the USDC Bootstrap Fund are excited to fund and work with promising startups and with developers building decentralized protocols that advance our mission.”
The post further states the benefits of building stablecoin-backed projects including banking the unbanked, a global payment system, and wealth preservation. The fund aims to help build solutions that will “make it easier for people to participate as equals in the global financial system.”
Additionally, Coinbase also wants to provide crypto developers with easy tools to facilitate the building of decentralized applications (dApps). The exchange aims to build inexpensive fiat-to-crypto on-ramps, custody-as-a-service solutions, open-source infrastructure, and tools to create dApps.
The exchange is calling on entrepreneurs and developers to reach out to receive the funding.
“If you’re an entrepreneur tackling one of these problems or are working on another big idea that we left off this list, and you’d like to work with us, reach out to our Coinbase Ventures team here.”
The post did not disclose the value of funding set to be disbursed from the USDC Bootstrap Fund. USDC is currently available on Ethereum and recently joined Algorand blockchain.