Circle Halts Support for Individual Stablecoin Minting Accounts

Circle, the creator of stablecoins, has announced it is discontinuing its consumer Circle Mint account services.

The company disclosed on its website that “Consumer-only Circle Mint accounts will no longer be supported and will be closed. No further action is required from the account holders in this matter.”

This development signifies that consumers using the platform to create stablecoins, such as USDC and EURC, will now need to find alternative services for their minting needs.

Despite the cessation of consumer account support, individuals can still acquire USDC through various brokers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and digital wallet services, a representative from Circle informed Cryptonews.

“Circle is phasing out support for legacy consumer accounts and has notified individual consumers of this decision,” the spokesperson relayed. “Account closures do not apply to business or institutional Circle Mint accounts.”

An email notice was dispatched by Circle on Tuesday, informing consumer account holders with a zero balance of the forthcoming support termination.

User @Evan_ss6 on the social platform X shared screenshots of the email, which detailed that Circle decided to cease support for consumer accounts following a “strategic review.” The email stated that both wiring and minting capabilities would end, and that such accounts would be closed by November 30th.

While Circle steps back from individual consumer accounts, its chief competitor, Tether, continues to cater to personal users, though with a $100,000 minimum threshold.

Tether holds the top spot as the most prominent stablecoin issuer with a total circulating supply of about $84 billion in USDT. Circle ranks second, maintaining roughly $27 billion in USDC circulating supply, as per data from The Block’s Data Dashboard.

Circle has navigated challenges over the previous year, ceding market share and customers to Tether amid the FTX collapse and Silicon Valley Bank’s failure.

Circle had $3.3 billion in USDC reserve funds at SVB. When the bank went under in March 2023, these funds were seized by regulators, triggering investor anxiety and a pivot from USDC to Tether’s USDT among traders.

Adding to Circle’s adversities, in August, PayPal debuted its own USD-backed stablecoin, PYUSD, marking the entry of a major U.S. financial entity into the stablecoin market.

Recently, Circle announced plans to introduce a loyalty points conversion to stablecoin service in Taiwan.

The company is partnering with BitoGroup, a crypto exchange, and Taiwan FamilyMart, a retail chain, to roll out its ‘Points-to-Crypto’ program.

A press release from October 26th detailed the partnership, allowing customers to transform FamilyMart loyalty points into digital currencies like Circle’s USDC. The program will operate without transaction fees and aims to prevent the depreciation of loyalty points over time.