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Buy USD Coin in Canada

USD Coin made simple

Everything you need to know about USD Coin and how to start investing in it.

Current Price

This one’s easy: the price the coin or token is trading at right now.

$1.37 CAD

-$0.003165 (-0.23%) past 24 hours

Market Cap
The value of the entire supply of a specific cryptocurrency or token. It’s calculated by taking the price of a coin/token and multiplying it by the total number of that coin/token in circulation.
$45,131,610,108.86
Circulating Supply
The amount of coins that have already been created and are available in the market.
$32,768,841,307.46
24h low - high range
Low-high range over the past 24 hours.
$1.36 - $1.41

USDC 101

USDC, also known as USD Coin, is a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. It’s part of a class of cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins, which are directly tied to fiat currencies to allow people to hold and use crypto without worrying about the volatility. As long as the U.S. dollar stays stable, so does the USDC.

Although USDC started life on Ethereum, it has since branched to other blockchains including Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Tron, Hedera Hashgraph, Avalanche and Flow. That means you can use USDC to hold a stable value of $1 across multiple blockchains.

With a market capitalization of $58 billion as of March 1, 2022, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin after Tether (USDT), which has a market capitalization of $70 billion. Functionally, the coins are quite similar — they have both historically provided pegs to the U.S. dollar — and both were created by companies. In USDC’s case, it’s maintained by Centre, a consortium led by crypto exchange behemoth Coinbase and crypto payments company Circle. USDT is maintained by Tether, the sister company of the Bitfinex crypto platform.

Both are also backed by deposits of U.S. dollars and use their cash deposits to invest in stable financial instruments. USDC is backed entirely by cash and debt instruments, while USDT is backed by cash, commercial paper and other money market instruments, plus a smattering of crypto holdings and loans. But there is a major difference: USDC claims to be backed by 100% of cash and U.S. debt, while Tether held $24.2 billion in indeterminate commercial paper, as of December 2021.

Both of these coins differ from decentralized stablecoins like DAI, which pegs their coin to the U.S. dollar through code and complicated monetary mechanisms.

Why Wealthsimple Crypto?

Wealthsimple Crypto lets you buy and sell cryptocurrencies all in one easy-to-use app. And as Canada’s first regulated crypto platform, you can trust that your coins are in good hands. How simple is it?

  • Sign up in minutes right from your phone or laptop
  • Start trading crypto with as little as $1
  • No account minimums
  • No clunky dashboards — just one super simple app
  • Best of all: you don’t need to be an expert in crypto or blockchain to get started
Get started with Crypto

What can you do with USDC?

USDC is supported by several blockchains, which means that you can transfer stable values across blockchains without having to expose yourself to the currency volatility inherent to so many cryptocurrencies.

USDC has also been integrated into many wallets and exchanges – although its popularity remains dwarfed by USDT. While the coin isn’t a replacement for genuine U.S. dollars, there are debit cards that let you spend deposits of USDC just like you would U.S. dollars, converting your holdings at the point of sale.

Some, but not many, vendors and payment processors accept USDC directly. The coin remains popular within the decentralized finance ecosystem, however. Crypto lender BlockFi lets you earn yields from USDC deposits, for instance, and Yearn Finance has a popular USDC vault that generates returns over time. You can also use USDC to buy NFTs on OpenSea, or cryptocurrencies on decentralized exchange Uniswap.

You can also use USDC to protect yourself from currency swings. Many traders sell volatile cryptocurrencies for stablecoins like USDC ahead of crashes so that they can quickly transition into a stable currency without leaving the crypto ecosystem entirely.

Is USD Coin a smart investment?

Crypto carries risks — but generally speaking, our advice (regardless of whether you’re investing in USD Coin or stocks) is: never invest what you can’t afford to lose. The smartest way to grow your money long term is with a diversified, low-cost portfolio that tracks the market.

How we keep your USD Coin safe

As Canada’s first regulated crypto trading platform, we’re required to meet certain requirements — like using only qualified custodians (like Coinbase Custody) for cold storage.

FYI: Wealthsimple Crypto is not an exchange itself. Instead, we work with multiple exchanges to give you the best USD Coin prices.

And to make sure your coins are extra protected, we’ve partnered with Coincover for an extra layer of security.

If you’re holding crypto outside of Wealthsimple, that’s no problem. You can safely transfer your USD Coin to your Wealthsimple account in just a few taps.

Other cryptos to explore

More info about USD Coin

Want to take a deeper dive? Check out these articles about USD Coin and the world of crypto.

Explore all articles on Crypto

Ready to get started?

Download the Wealthsimple Trade app, create your account, and start trading USD Coin with just $1. It’s that simple.

By clicking “Create account”, you agree to Wealthsimple’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

FAQs

USDC is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. It’s the second-largest stablecoin after USDT, or Tether. You can use USDC whenever you want to avoid currency volatility – this feature makes stablecoins like USDC popular with traders, who often switch into cryptocurrencies like USDC ahead of big crashes, or stake the coin in decentralized finance protocols to earn predictable yields.

As of March 1, 2022, there’s about $50 billion USDC in circulation, or 50 billion USDC tokens. These USDC coins represent the $50 billion in US dollars and American debt that backs the token. The coin’s supply waxes and wanes as people mint and redeem coins – USDC is redeemable for cash. Since the coin’s creation in 2018, the supply has mostly increased; at the start of 2020, the circulating supply of USDC coins was just 500 million, meaning that the supply of USDC coins has increased by ten thousand times as of March 2022.

You can spend USDC at any venue that accepts it. In the land of crypto, that means decentralized lending protocols and exchanges, or yield farms that produce returns over time. Many NFTs are listed for the coin on OpenSea, the most popular NFT marketplace. Remember that the DeFi market is scarcely regulated, so be sure to do your research before investing your USDC in the latest craze. Each blockchain has its own decentralized finance market, and USDC operates on many blockchains, including Avalanche, Solana and Stellar. Holders of the Coinbase Visa debit card can spend their USDC deposits just like US dollars.

Yep! When you open a Wealthsimple Crypto account, you can get started with anywhere from $1 to $1,500 instantly.

Generally speaking, the CRA treats cryptocurrencies as a commodity. Here’s what they say:

Any income from transactions involving cryptocurrency is generally treated as business income or as a capital gain, depending on the circumstances. Similarly, if earnings qualify as business income or as a capital gain then any losses are treated as business losses or capital losses.

Always keep solid records of any USD Coin transactions. If you use Wealthsimple Crypto to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, we’ll generate some of those tax documents for you.

USD Coin’s current market cap is 45,131,610,109.

The current price for USD Coin in Canadian dollars is $1.37.

Buying USD Coin with Wealthsimple is, well, simple. The first thing you need to do is open and fund a Crypto account in the Wealthsimple Trade app. You can connect your bank account and add up to $1,500 instantly.

From there, follow these steps: 1. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen 2. Type in USD Coin 3. Tap Buy 4. Enter the dollar value of cryptocurrency you'd like to buy and tap Continue 5. Review the order details and tap Confirm order

You can choose between two different order types when buying USD Coin. A market order lets you buy or sell crypto immediately at the best available price at the time. A limit order lets you buy or sell crypto at a specific price or better.

You can withdraw funds from the cash balance in your Crypto account and move those funds to your bank account. Withdrawals typically take around 2 - 3 business days.

A crypto wallet — often called a “hot wallet” — is a location for holding crypto “on-chain” (i.e. linked to the blockchain versus off-chain cold storage.) Many users use wallet applications to help them manage their blockchain addresses, since each chain uses its own addresses.