The Circle Impact program seeks to work on a Digital Finance Literacy Initiative, and create a team to help deliver "corruption resistant" funding to humanitarian and development aid groups.
Stablecoin issuer Circle launched an initiative that it believes will bring billions of dollars to minority-owned and community banks in an effort to spread crypto's wealth to parts of the U.S. that need it most.
The Circle Impact program's goal is "aimed at reaching the people and communities who are all too often left behind by the traditional financial system," Circle's chief strategy officer and head of global policy, Dante Disparte, in a November 17 blog post.
To do this, Circle will move a share of the U.S. dollar reserves backing its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, a top 10 cryptocurrency which currently has a market capitalization of $34.4 billion — making it by far the second-largest stablecoin (although it's still less than half the size of Tether's USDT).
While the release did not specify how much it would be investing, and how fast, it has a "long-term goal of reaching billions of dollars in deposits over time," Disparte wrote.
The bank deposits are only a part of the program that also includes launching initiatives within Circle's existing startup fundraising platform, SeedInvest, "aimed at helping women and minority businesses raise startup capital," Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a tweet announcing the broader program.
The program comes at a time when there are indications that cryptocurrency is being embraced by a far more diverse population than was previously thought. Last week, the highly regarded Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel long-running survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults found that Asian-American (23%), Hispanic (21%), and Black (18%) investors were all more likely to have bought or used cryptocurrencies than white adults, only 13% of whom were investing in crypto.
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Crypto Financial Literacy
Circle is also working with leading Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. (HBCUs) and other institutions on a Digital Finance Literacy Initiative that "aims to ensure the digital financial revolution is universally accessible."
Outside the U.S., Circle is creating a rapid response team that will work with NGOs and governments to use USDC to deliver "corruption resistant" aid, development, and humanitarian efforts worldwide, the company said. That builds on the company's "successful program for aid to health works in Venezuela," Allaire said.
The initiatives align with Circle's broader mission of achieving "the vision of raising global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of financial value," according to Allaire. He added:
"Circle Impact is our commitment to ensuring the future of internet-native financial services is more inclusive than its analog cousin."
