Circle has partnered with New York Community Bancorp in a deal that will see the bank's subsidiary, New York Community Bank, become a custodian of the stable coin's reserves, Circle announced on June 28.
This collaboration marks the beginning of a new community bank that holds USDC reserves.
Circle and NYCB are working together to develop strategies that foster access to low-cost financial solutions for underserved and unbanked communities, as part of the custody deal. According to the announcement, these strategies will use Circle's sBlockchain and stable coin solutions.
This partnership will see Circle and NYCB support for Minority-owned Depository Institutions MDIs, where additional USDC reserves may be held.
Circle aims to support underrepresented financial institutions by allocating some of the dollar-based reserves across MDIs, in order to build on its long-term goal of allocating some of USDC's dollar-based reserves. This goal is part of the Circle Impact initiative, which seeks to foster global economic prosperity.
Despite the bear market, USDC continues to perform well. The market value of the stable coin has been growing steadily, even though it is not tied to the U.S. dollar.
At the time of writing, USDC is the second-largest stable coin and fourth-largest token, with a market cap of $55.82 billion. At the beginning of the year, USDC had a market cap of $42.45 billion.
TetherUSDT is the largest stable coin and the third largest coin with a market cap of $66.76 billion. At the beginning of the year, USDT had a market cap of 78.34 billion.