Intercontinental Exchange to Explore Using Circle's Stablecoin and Tokenized Asset

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to explore using Circle's stablecoin and tokenized asset to develop new products

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, said on Thursday it plans to explore using Circle's stablecoin and tokenized asset to develop new products, joining a roster of U.S. traditional financial giants pushing into crypto.

The two firms will collaborate to examine how Circle's USDC stablecoin and USYC tokenized money market fund could be integrated into derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses and other services, according to an agreement announced by the firms.

"We believe Circle’s regulated stablecoins and tokenized digital currencies can play a larger role in capital markets as digital currencies become more trusted by market participants as an acceptable equivalent to the U.S. dollar," said Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange. "We are excited to explore the potential use cases for USDC and USYC across ICE’s markets."

USDC is the second-largest stablecoin, trailing only Tether's USDT, with a market capitalization of $60 billion. It is fully backed by U.S. government securities and cash-equivalent assets. USYC is a money market fund token issued by Hashnote, which was acquired by Circle earlier this year.

ICE is the latest example of U.S. financial giants delving into applying digital assets, stablecoins and tokenization as regulatory headwinds over the crypto industry subside under the Trump administration.

In the past few days, asset manager Fidelity Investments filed to launch a tokenized money market fund and is reportedly working on issuing a stablecoin, while derivatives exchange CME Group said it's testing tokenization with Google Cloud's private distributed ledger, aiming to launch new services next year. Tokenization is the process of placing financial instruments like bonds, funds and other securities on blockchain rails to pursue operational gains.

Martin foreshadowed the firm's potential push into digital assets last May at a Consensus 2024 panel discussion, saying that the exchange would consider offering crypto trading if the regulatory picture in the U.S. were clearer.