Grant Thornton Attests USDC is Backed by Fiat, Huobi Establishes Communist Party Branch

In exchange news, we look at a major accounting firm’s attestation that all USDC tokens issued by Circle are fully backed by fiat dollars. We also focus on a Huobi Group subsidiary that has set up a Chinese Communist Party branch, as well as Bakkt, which has listed the reasons behind its move into bitcoin.

Also Read: US Bank That Serves 483 Cryptocurrency Companies Is Seeking an IPO

Accounting Firm Supports Circle’s USDC Claim

Coinbase has published a post on its blog announcing that accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP has issued an attestation report vouching for Circle’s assertion that its USDC tokens are fully backed by fiat reserves. The firm said that Circle “correctly stated” that the 127,408,827 USDC tokens it had issued by Oct. 31 were backed by $127,412,240,89 held in its custody accounts. It also said that the examination “was conducted in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.” The attestation does not constitute an audit.

Huobi Creates Communist Party Committee

A subsidiary of Huobi Group has established a Communist Party committee in China, making it the first known distributed ledger technology company to set up a party branch. The charter of the Chinese Communist Party states that any enterprise in China that employs at least three party members shall establish a party branch tasked with promoting the official party line.

The subsidiary, Beijing Lianhuo Information Service, reportedly set up its party branch late last week. The company was established in April of this year and has registered capital of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million). The founder and chief executive of Huobi, Li Lin, holds a 99 percent stake in Beijing Lianhuo.

Bakkt States Motivations Behind Move Into Bitcoin

Bakkt, the forthcoming cryptocurrency platform owned by Intercontinental Exchange, recently took to Twitter to address the motivations behind its decision to launch a BTC product. It stated that BTC accounts for over half of the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market. Further, it said that BTC is legally recognized as a commodity, with corresponding derivatives markets under regulation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The tweet also stated that customer demand for bitcoin will facilitate the creation of “a liquid product on which to build a futures contract.”

Do you think that other stablecoin issuers will seek to attain formal attestations of their fiat reserves from major accounting firms? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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