Crypto tracking service WhaleAlert shocked the crypto sector by announcing $19 million worth of USDC tokens have been transferred to an unknown at the time of writing wallet. A smaller transaction preceded the transfer on November 21st - $10 million USDC were allocated to the same wallet address. It is still unclear if Coinbase is relocating funds to a cold wallet, or it is a hacker attack.
USDC, also known as USD Coin is nowadays running under a consortium as Circle and Coinbase joined hands into tailoring the stablecoin to suit the needs of one of the largest crypto exchanges to date.
USDC is aiming to be an alternative to the controversial Tether (USDT) stablecoin, as well as TrueUSD (TUSD) as a way to tokenize the U.S. Dollar. And while such large transactions are a common thing in the stablecoin sector, the two large transactions are a new situation for USDC.
Since Circle and Coinbase formed CENTRE Consortium, alongside other crypto-related companies, the USDC ERC-20 token is also used for a reward. Coinbase stated that every user that wants to keep his USDC tokens would receive a 1,25% annual percentage yield (APY).
Coinbase and Circle announced the launch of the consortium on October 23rd, 2018. Since then, trading volumes have spiked, reaching highs of little over $510 million. Over the last week, the token traded in the $200 million - $300 million regions, despite the entire sector suffering from lowered asset prices and weak trading volumes.