U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has forwarded correspondence to stablecoin issuers and exchanges, seeking insight regarding efforts to protect consumers and investors.
Brown sent letters to Circle, Coinbase, Gemini, Paxos, TrustToken, Binance.US, and Centre regarding his inquiry.
“I write to request information regarding the USDC stablecoin,” Brown, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, wrote in his letter to Circle. “As documented in the recent report by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, stablecoins present investor protection risks and raise several market integrity concerns. Consumers’ increased use of stablecoins, and their importance in effecting transactions in digital assets, underscores the need for greater understanding of the basic operation, and limitations, of USDC.”
Brown indicated in the letter he had concerns with the non-standardized terms applicable to the redemption of particular stablecoins, how those terms differ from traditional assets and how those terms may not be consistent across digital asset trading platforms.
Through his correspondence, Brown is seeking information regarding a description of the basic purchase, exchange, or minting process[es] by which customers can acquire USDC for U.S. dollars; details related to the process of redeeming USDC and receiving U.S. dollars; background regarding how many USDC tokens have been issued and how many have been redeemed; and a characterization of the market or operational conditions preventing the purchase, or redemption, of USDC for U.S. dollars, or another digital asset.