USDC
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Does USDC hold its $1 peg?
USDC targets a 1:1 peg with the US dollar through direct issuance and redemption: when Circle receives dollars, it mints USDC; when USDC is redeemed, Circle burns the tokens and returns the dollars. Circulating supply stays anchored to reserve value rather than to algorithmic incentives, and arbitrage against that redemption promise is what pulls any exchange-price wobble back to $1.00. This is not financial advice.
The majority of USDC reserves sit in the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered 2a-7 government money market fund managed at BlackRock with daily independent reporting, alongside cash at regulated financial institutions, held segregated from Circle's operating capital. Circle publishes monthly reserve attestations conducted by Deloitte confirming reserves meet or exceed circulating supply; attestations verify composition at a point in time and are distinct from a full audit, though Deloitte has also audited Circle's financials since fiscal year 2022. Circle reported roughly $73 billion USDC in circulation in mid-2026 per its reserve page.
The stress record
- March 2023, the canonical test
- When Silicon Valley Bank failed with a portion of USDC's cash reserves inside, USDC traded well below $1 on secondary markets. Four days later, after US regulators guaranteed SVB depositors, the peg fully recovered. The episode proved two things at once: reserve concentration at a single bank creates real depeg exposure, and recovery happens when the underlying dollars are ultimately recoverable.
- Since then
- Circle has described diversifying reserve counterparties, and the reserve has shifted toward the BlackRock-managed government money market structure; per-bank concentration figures are not broken out in the monthly attestations, which is worth knowing as a transparency limit.
What a holder should watch
- Monthly attestations at circle.com — the gap between reserve value and circulating supply is the direct peg-risk signal.
- Regulatory surface — Circle became the first major issuer to achieve EU MiCA compliance in July 2024 and listed on the NYSE in June 2025, adding quarterly public-company disclosure on top of state money-transmission licensing.
- Market behavior under stress — unusually large redemption volumes or a sustained secondary-market price meaningfully below the peg are the early on-chain indicators.
How to get USDC in Phantom
Phantom's built-in buy flow delivers USDC straight into a self-custody wallet with a debit card, credit card, or bank transfer; no exchange account is needed, and Phantom never holds your funds at any point.
What people actually use USDC for: parking value between trades without leaving the chain, sending and receiving dollar-denominated payments that settle in under a second for fractions of a cent, receiving stablecoin payroll or client payments, and holding dollars under their own keys. Solana is among USDC's cheapest, fastest rails; the same token costs dollars to move on Ethereum during congestion.
- Install Phantom and secure your walletDownload Phantom (iOS, Android, or browser extension) and create or import a wallet. Write your Secret Recovery Phrase on paper and store it offline before adding any money; anyone holding the phrase controls the wallet, and Phantom cannot recover it.
- Buy USDC directlyTap Buy on the home screen, select USDC on the Solana network, choose your payment method, and review the full fee breakdown before confirming. Phantom routes through integrated on-ramp providers, so methods and fees vary by region. No SOL balance is needed for this route.
- Or swap an existing tokenTap Swap, choose your source token and USDC as the destination, review the quote, and confirm. Swaps pay a Solana network fee in SOL, typically a fraction of a cent, so keep a small SOL buffer.
Verify the mint
Before accepting USDC from any external source, confirm the mint address matches. Fake look-alike stablecoins exist on Solana; the mint address is the definitive check.
Fees and custody
On-ramp purchases carry the provider fee shown in the quote; swaps carry the sub-cent network fee plus any routing fee shown in the interface; holding USDC in Phantom costs nothing. Self-custody means no exchange can freeze, restrict, or lend out your USDC. One honest nuance: the USDC contract itself gives Circle address-level freeze authority as a compliance mechanism, so self-custody protects you from platform failure, not from issuer-level compliance actions.
About
USDC is a fully reserved, regulated stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, launched in September 2018 by Circle and Coinbase through their Centre Consortium joint venture. Since the consortium dissolved in August 2023, Circle has held sole governance over issuance, reserve management, and the contract's administrative functions. Circle describes USDC as "the world's largest regulated digital dollar," a claim resting on its EU MiCA compliance (achieved July 2024, the first major issuer to do so), its US state money-transmission licensing, and, since June 2025, the disclosure obligations of a NYSE-listed company. USDC is natively issued on dozens of blockchain networks rather than bridged, which removes a whole class of wrapper risk.
On Solana, USDC is among the most actively traded assets: the default dollar leg of DEX trading pairs, a core DeFi collateral asset, and a payments rail. That last role is not theoretical; in 2023 Visa ran a settlement pilot using USDC on Solana with payment firms Worldpay and Nuvei, putting institutional payment infrastructure on the network. The native Solana mint, the token this page represents, is EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v.
Is USDC safe?
- Issuer risk
- One company controls issuance, reserves, and the freeze mechanism. Circle's public listing (NYSE, June 2025) adds quarterly financial disclosure; its solvency and decisions still directly affect the token.
- Reserve risk
- Reserves are short-dated Treasuries and cash equivalents, mostly in the BlackRock-managed Circle Reserve Fund with daily reporting and monthly Deloitte attestations; they are not FDIC-insured, and March 2023 proved bank-counterparty concentration can bite.
- Freeze and blacklist authority
- Circle can block specific addresses from transacting. This is a designed compliance property of a regulated stablecoin, not an emergency power, and it makes USDC structurally different from censorship-resistant assets like BTC or SOL. Hold it knowing that.
- Verification hygiene
- Fake USDC tokens exist on Solana; confirm the mint address against this page before accepting transfers from external sources.
Nothing here is financial advice; "stable" describes the design target, not a guarantee, and the SVB episode is the honest proof of both the risk and the recovery mechanics.
FAQ
The market capitalization of USDC is $8B as of Jul 24, 2026.
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the current price of USDC by its circulating supply. It reflects the overall value of the token in the market and helps gauge its relative size compared to other cryptocurrencies.
The daily trading volume of USDC is $1.1B as of Jul 24, 2026.
Trading volume can fluctuate based on market conditions, investor activity, and overall demand for USDC.
The total supply of USDC is 8.02B.
The circulating supply, which represents the number of USDC currently available in the market, is 8.02B as of Jul 24, 2026.
USDC can be bought and traded on a variety of cryptocurrency platforms, including Phantom!
USDC is a fully reserved stablecoin issued by Circle that targets a 1:1 value with the US dollar, launched in September 2018 and natively issued on dozens of blockchains including Solana. Reserves sit in short-dated US Treasuries and cash, mostly via an SEC-registered government money market fund managed at BlackRock, with monthly Deloitte attestations. On Solana it settles in under a second for fractions of a cent; the verified mint address is EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v.
USDC is a regulated, transparently reserved stablecoin with one major documented stress event: the March 2023 SVB depeg, which fully recovered in four days after regulators guaranteed depositors. Its real risks are issuer risk (Circle's solvency and sole governance), reserve counterparty risk (reserves are not FDIC-insured), and Circle's designed authority to freeze specific addresses for compliance. Monthly Deloitte attestations and NYSE-listing disclosure make those risks unusually visible for the asset class. This is not financial advice.
Tap Buy on Phantom's home screen, select USDC on the Solana network, choose a debit card, credit card, or bank transfer, review the fee breakdown, and confirm; the USDC arrives directly in your self-custody wallet with no exchange account involved. If you already hold SOL or another token, use the built-in Swap instead. Either way, confirm the mint address EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v when receiving USDC from outside sources.
Not for the built-in buy flow: card and bank purchases are handled by the on-ramp provider with no SOL required. Swapping an existing Solana token into USDC does require a small SOL balance for the network fee, which runs a fraction of a cent per transaction. If you plan to move or spend your USDC on Solana afterward, keep a small SOL buffer so those transactions are never blocked on fee coverage.
Circle issues USDC and has held sole governance since August 2023, when Circle and Coinbase dissolved the Centre Consortium that originally launched the token in 2018. Circle is registered with FinCEN, licensed under US state money-transmission laws, became the first major stablecoin issuer to achieve EU MiCA compliance in July 2024, and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since June 2025. Phantom is the self-custody wallet where you hold USDC and has no role in its issuance.
It has once, briefly: in March 2023, USDC traded well below $1 after Silicon Valley Bank failed holding part of its cash reserves, then fully recovered four days later when US regulators guaranteed SVB depositors. That episode defines the realistic risk: reserve counterparty stress can move the peg, and recovery depends on the reserves being ultimately recoverable. Routine fractional deviations on exchanges are normal pricing texture, not depegs. No stablecoin can guarantee a permanent dollar price.
Regulation and transparency are the differentiators: monthly Deloitte attestations plus daily reporting on the BlackRock-managed reserve fund, EU MiCA compliance, US money-transmission licensing, and a NYSE-listed issuer with quarterly disclosure. Against USDT, the honest trade is USDC's tighter transparency and US regulatory footing versus USDT's deeper global exchange liquidity. USDC is also natively issued on each chain it supports rather than bridged, removing wrapper counterparty risk.
Pricing information is provided for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Market data is provided by third parties and Phantom makes no representation as to the accuracy of the information.
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Pricing information is provided for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Market data is provided by third parties and Phantom makes no representation as to the accuracy of the information.