Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire: Stablecoins That Use Open Standards Will Prevail

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of payments company Circle, has said that as the sector continues to see new market entrants, stablecoins using an open standards approach will prevail. Allaire made his remarks during an interview with Fortune’s crypto-focused segment The Ledger on March 19.

As reported, Circle launched its USD-backed, ERC-20 stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) last fall, via the consortium Centre, which counts crypto exchange Coinbase and mining firm Bitmain as members. Centre is also the name for the token’s open network and open source protocol, which provides interoperability in a bid to secure wide ecosystem support for the asset.

In his interview with The Ledger, Allaire welcomed recent, unconfirmed reports of Facebook’s still-secretive plans to launch its own stablecoin asset, which would reportedly be integrated for payments within a canopy messaging service for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram:

"That's [Facebook’s reported plans are] very, very positive in our view overall. The approach that we’ve taken is to create a consortium model. When we think about a standard for how fiat money works on the internet, it’s really critical that it’s an open standard that many companies can implement, that has an self-governance mechanism around it that can evolve both a technical standard as well as a membership framework.”

Using the metaphor of creating “an HTTP for money on the internet” that could support global, broad participation from multiple actors, Allaire said he believed such an approach is “ultimately going to be much more successful than a single company issuing a [crypto]currency themselves.”

As reported yesterday, the Winklevoss twins have echoed Allaire’s perspective in affirming the Facebook stablecoin development as a positive sign for the crypto industry as a whole, while underscoring the project’s prospective limitations.

This year, United States banking giant JPMorgan Chase revealed its own plans to launch a proprietary stablecoin, which has also drawn criticisms over its lack of interoperability.

When Circle closed its Bitmain-led $110 million fundraising round to raise capital for the USDC project last May, its private valuation hit $3 billion. More recent figures for the firm, in the aftermath of the protracted crypto bear market, have not been officially reported — although Allaire told the Ledger the company continued to see “very significant growth year last year.”

In summer 2018, Allaire pitched stablecoins as a vital component of the infrastructure for creating a tokenized global economy.