Can the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin become the de facto U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), as Coinbase’s CEO predicted during the company’s earnings call Thursday?
Perhaps, said John Todaro, vice president at investment and asset management firm Needham & Co., on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” program Friday.
However, the analyst is more sure that Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, the second-largest by volume in the world and one of the companies behind the stablecoin (with Circle), will benefit from USDC’s growth.
“USDC is exciting [in the] long term,” Todaro said. “We’re excited about stablecoins.”
The analyst, whose focus is on crypto assets and blockchain research, told CoinDesk TV that considering the slow pace of development for a U.S. CBDC it is “debatable” whether “private markets” will ever choose to use one. But a stablecoin like USDC, which is pegged 1:1 with the U.S. dollar, is another matter.
Todaro explained that if Coinbase were to “mint” USDC, it would be entitled to the “revenue share on the back of the reserve assets,” which in turn would mean Coinbase would operate like a more traditional finance firm.
