Circle suspends services for individual accounts: Circle Mint for businesses and institutions will still be available.

The stablecoin issuer Circle, in an email sent to users yesterday, announced that it will cease support for retail consumer accounts on November 30, while other large enterprises or institutions with Circle Mint accounts will not be affected. Users speculate that Circle's decision may be due to its need to reduce operating costs.

Circle to Close Personal Accounts

According to a tweet from Circle user Evanss6 last night, the stablecoin giant Circle has sent emails to its users, stating that they will be closing individual or personal accounts by November 30.

Circle cracking down? pic.twitter.com/KwvX9sz0xp

— Evanss6 (@Evan_ss6) October 31, 2023

The email stated that Circle will cease offering $USDC minting and redemption services to individual consumers:

Circle is gradually reducing support for legacy consumer accounts and has notified users of this change, although this will not affect enterprise and institutional accounts using Circle Mint, which will continue to operate.

Furthermore, a spokesperson explained to Coindesk that individual accounts will still be able to obtain $USDC through cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.

The email referred to these personal accounts as "legacy consumer accounts," indicating that these accounts have either been inactive for a long time or hold minimal balances.

This move aligns with the practice of Tether, the issuer of $USDT, which sets a $100,000 minimum threshold for minting and redemption, thereby limiting access for small consumers.

Users Speculate on Cost Considerations

Under the tweet, some crypto users speculated on the reasons behind Circle's decision, suggesting it may be due to cost considerations:

The reason for Circle disabling or closing retail accounts may be part of their "cost-cutting" or "restructuring exercise" strategy.

In a statement on layoffs in July, Circle indicated that to stabilize their balance sheet, the company would focus more on core business activities, gradually reducing or ceasing investments in other businesses to lower overall operating costs.

$USDC Market Share Continues to Decline

Previously, $USDC has been one of the largest stablecoins in the crypto market, but its market value and share have been declining since June of this year.

DeFiLlama data shows that the current market value of $USDC is $24.17 billion, with a market share of approximately 18%; while the market value of $USDT continues to rise, surpassing $84.78 billion, with an impressive market share of 63.13%.