USDC's story traces back to Circle, founded in October 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in Boston. Allaire previously co-founded Macromedia (Flash) and Brightcove before turning to crypto in 2012.
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Feb. 2018: Circle acquires the Poloniex exchange (~$400M), later divested.
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Sep. 26, 2018: USDC launches on Ethereum, via the Centre Consortium joint venture with Coinbase.
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Aug. 2023: Circle dissolves the Centre Consortium, becoming sole issuer of USDC.
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Jun. 2025: Circle goes public on the NYSE (CRCL) — the first-ever IPO by a stablecoin issuer.
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May 2026: Circle raises $222M to build its own Layer 1 blockchain (“Arc”) at a ~$3B valuation.
USDC is the token, Circle (officially Circle Internet Group) is the issuing, publicly traded company.