Circle to End Support for USDC on the Tron Blockchain
Circle announced it will stop supporting USDC on the Tron network by February 2025, citing security concerns.
The largest issuer of stablecoins, Circle, is discontinuing support for USDC on the Tron network, the company announced on its social media channels. According to Circle, the team conducted a complex review with various business organizations and the compliance to come to this decision. Circle also added that the discontinuation of support will be phased out in stages and will cease completely by February 2025.
1/ We are discontinuing USDC on the TRON blockchain in a phased transition. Effective immediately, we will no longer mint USDC on TRON. Transfers and redemptions of USDC on TRON will continue to operate normally through February 2025. Read the details: https://t.co/kw9A3ZUpWH
— Circle (@circle) February 21, 2024
The company allows Circle Mint customers to migrate USDC to alternative blockchains until February 2025. Circle Mint's customers are large enterprises; other users are encouraged to move USDC to other networks as soon as possible.
Circle cited security and risk management concerns as the main reasons for discontinuing support. In its blog, the issuer pointed to conducting a comprehensive review of all networks to ensure they are suitable to support its stablecoin. This measure is part of an ongoing commitment they have to maintain the reliability, transparency, and security of the USDC.
Circle's ending of support for Tron comes after the blockchain company faced allegations of involvement in money laundering. Last year, the Campaign for Accountability wrote a letter to U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, claiming that Circle was facilitating the financing of terrorist organizations, citing transfers to TRON as evidence.
In addition, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Tron founder, Justin Sun, accusing him of market manipulation.
Today we charged crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix and BitTorrent.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 22, 2023
Read more:https://t.co/4tXgKNof6Q
As for USDC, network data shows USDC's dominance of the Ethereum network, where more than $22 billion of the total circulating supply has been placed. Tron holds a relatively modest share of $313 million of the total USDC market.
Circle's main rival, Tether, also decided to compete for dominance in the Ethereum market by issuing 1 billion USDT tokens on this network.
Referring back to Tron, it is worth noting that Circle's announcement did not negatively affect TRX pricing. Tron's price has been slowly climbing above the $0.120 resistance zone lately. The asset has added 8% in price over the past seven days. Not long ago, TRX price hit a new multi-week high at $0.140.
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At the time of writing, TRX was trading at $0.1397. From the technical point of view, the nearest resistance is close to the level of $0.1400. An important level is $0.1420, above which the price may continue its rapid growth to the resistance levels of $0.1650, $0.1720 and $0.180.
On the negative side, TRX could fall to support levels of $0.1380, $0.1350 and $0.1320.
This is not a 100 percent statement. The cryptocurrency market is very volatile. Investors should exercise caution and remember the importance of doing their own research.