Coinbase announced the launch of a “USDC Bootstrap Fund” today, in an effort to further the development and adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.
The fund is comprised solely of USDC, a fiat-backed stablecoin which is popular in existing DeFi money markets. The USDC token was created in 2018 by Centre – a consortium consisting of Coinbase, Circle, and others.
Coinbase will use the fund to directly invest USDC into new DeFi protocols, in order to kick-start liquidity and boost their adoption. Such DeFi platforms are a cutting-edge way for users to trustlessly lend and borrow cryptocurrencies, especially Ethereum and Ethereum-based stablecoins such as Dai and USDC.
The first two recipients of investments from the fund were also announced today, with $1 million worth of USDC being allocated each to Compound Finance (lending market) and dYdX (lending market and margin trading exchange).
Rather than going directly to developers, these USDC tokens are made available to the platforms’ users via lending markets, to be borrowed at a floating interest rate.
The Coinbase USDC Bootstrap fund is part of a larger plan for supporting the rise of DeFi, and they plan to continue to update the community with further developments and contributions.
Have a DeFi platform that could do with a USDC boost? Apply to Coinbase here.
