Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, and CEO of Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology company is making the prediction for 2020.

His predictions are solely focused on stablecoins that he believes will continue to show prowess this year.

“While the media gets spun-up about CDEP and Libra, the industry continues to build. 2020 will continue to be a major year for stablecoins,” said Allaire.

According to him, mainstream use-cases will be built on the fiat-backed digital currency on public chains.

He points out how the media and industry are hyping over the un-launched stablecoins, which could be social media giant Facebook’s Libra which is expected to launch this year but has been gaining extreme criticism from the regulators all over the world.

Allaire says while those stablecoins and central bank digital currencies are seeing all the limelight, the crypto industry is already seeing USDC’s continued outpacing with about $520 million USDC in circulation.

ERC20 token USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin backed by US dollars, which are “held in reserve by regulated financial institutions.” It is the brainchild of CENTRE, an open-source technology bootstrapped by a contribution from Circle and US-based crypto exchange Coinbase.

While USDC has been growing, Allaire points out PAX has flat-lined at $240 million, TUSD in rapid decline and GUSD and BUSD are DOA (dead on arrival).

However, he does note Tether’s dominance, stating, “Tether continues to be largest stablecoin, offering an attractive option as an unregulated offshore USD shadow banking solution for China and Asia.”

But not before taking a jab at its lack of transparency about its fiat backing. In April this year, it has been revealed that USDT, the most popular stablecoin and 4th largest digital currency by market cap is only 74% backed by fiat.

“It's greatest feature is its non-compliance and opacity,” said Allaire.

Apart from stablecoins, Allaire added about Decentralized Financing (DeFi), saying “DeFi scaling up open finance.”

DeFi is a conventional financial tool built on the blockchain. Currently, $678 million are locked in DeFi, up 133% from $290 million in January, as per DeFi Pulse.

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