Jeremy Allaire is the co-founder and CEO of Circle, the company behind USDC — the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.
Circle and USDC
Allaire co-founded Circle in 2013 as a peer-to-peer payments company. Circle pivoted to focus on stablecoins, launching USDC in September 2018 in partnership with Coinbase through the Centre Consortium. USDC is a fully reserved, regulated stablecoin backed by U.S. dollars and short-dated U.S. Treasuries, with monthly reserve attestations from major accounting firms.
USDC became the stablecoin of choice for DeFi applications, institutional users, and regulated entities seeking a compliant dollar-denominated digital asset. It has been deployed across multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and others via Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
Regulatory Approach
Allaire has differentiated Circle by emphasizing regulatory compliance and transparency, positioning USDC as the “regulated alternative” to Tether’s USDT. Circle obtained money transmitter licenses across U.S. states and pursued a public listing — initially through a SPAC merger that was eventually abandoned, then through a traditional IPO filing.
Earlier Career
Before Circle, Allaire was a pioneer in internet technology. He co-founded Allaire Corporation, which created ColdFusion (a widely used web application server) and was later acquired by Macromedia (now part of Adobe). He also co-founded Brightcove, an online video platform that went public in 2012.