As of 10.30am PT on Thursday, October 25, Coinbase Pro is launching support for the USDC stablecoin. Here’s what that means:
Starting immediately, users can deposit normal US dollars (USD) and click to convert them to USDC with no fee
Also starting immediately, users can send and receive USDC into and out of their Coinbase Pro accounts
After a minimum of 12 hours, once sufficient liquidity is established, trading will begin on the BTC/USDC and ETH/USDC order books
USDC trading will be accessible for users in most jurisdictions, but will not initially be available for residents of the state of New York.
A true stablecoin: convert $1 USD to 1 USDC and back
One of the unique aspects of this launch is that while users may trade Bitcoin or Ether for USDC, the USD/USDC order book will not be available at this time. Instead we’ve developed something we consider better: an automatic tool to instantly convert USD to USDC and back, without exchange rate risk. What this means is that US customers will be able to buy 1 USDC for $1 or sell 1 USDC for $1, with no fees, in large volume, with one click.
Here’s what that looks like:
The reason we chose this approach is that we think the conversion of USD to USDC and back should be simple and intuitive. Just like you can convert physical dollars to bank-based dollars at an ATM, you can now convert bank-based dollars to blockchain-based digital dollars at Coinbase Pro. And you can then send these blockchain-based dollars to your local Ethereum wallet, use them in dApps or other crypto apps, or write programs with them, confident that each USDC can be sold for $1 at Coinbase This makes USDC a true stablecoin, as it’s stable in value at Coinbase Pro.
The Stages of the USDC Launch
In more detail, there will be four stages to the launch as outlined below. We will follow each of these stages independently for the BTC/USDC and ETH/USDC order books. If at any point one of the new order books does not meet our assessment for a healthy and orderly market, we may keep the book in one state for a longer period of time, or suspend trading as per our Trading Rules. We will send tweets from our Coinbase Pro Twitter account as each order book moves through the following phases:
USDC conversion-and-transfer-only mode. Starting at 10am PT on Thursday, October 25, customers will be able to convert USD to USDC and back, and to transfer USDC into and out of their Coinbase Pro accounts. Customers will not yet be able to place orders and no orders will be filled on the BTC/USDC and ETH/USDC order books. These order books will be in conversion-and-transfer-only mode for at least 12 hours.
Post-only. In the second stage, customers can post limit orders but there will be no matches (completed orders). An order book will be in post-only mode for a minimum of one minute. This market state has been shortened while still maintaining market health during launch.
Limit-only. In the third stage, limit orders will start matching but customers are unable to submit market orders. An order book will be in limit-only mode for a minimum of 10 minutes.
Full trading. In the final stage, full trading services will be available for an order book, including limit, market, and stop orders.
With this launch, Coinbase Pro users can now easily convert large quantities of US dollars into USDC and back at no fee and without exchange rate risk, can send USDC back and forth to their Ethereum wallets, and can also trade the two most popular digital currencies (Bitcoin and Ether) for USDC. We believe these are major steps towards making the USDC stablecoin useful, and help us build a more open financial system.
You can sign up for a Coinbase Pro account here to start trading USDC.
About David Farmer
David Farmer is Senior Director of International, leading both product and operations. He’s been at Coinbase since early 2015 and has led a number of teams including GDAX, Coinbase Pro and Prime, Business Operations & Strategy. Prior to Coinbase he was at Bain & Company.
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