https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/01/03/coinbase-usdc-terra-sec-gary-gensler-stablecoin-lawsuit/
"USDC is already a unique situation. Nominally, its issuer until recently was the Centre Consortium, which was really just a partnership between Circle and Coinbase. In August, the two firms finally sunsetted Centre, formalizing the stablecoin’s 50/50 split, though Circle would continue to handle matters of governance. Coinbase, however, is the main purveyor of USDC. If you go on its dedicated page now, you’ll be met with an offer: Buy USDC and earn a 5.1% reward by “simply holding USDC on Coinbase.”
At this point, you may ask yourself why the USDC rewards program is so different from UST and Anchor Protocol. I did, so I asked Todd Phillips, a financial regulation expert and assistant professor at Georgia State University. “Coinbase is playing a dangerous game,” he told me. “I do not know how they can justify that as not being an investment contract.”
There are several complicating factors. For one, Coinbase says that the rewards come from its own funds, which it writes off as marketing expenses, as opposed to doling out yields based on its own investments. At worst, one could describe this as a subterfuge to hide that the yield is still just a promise of Coinbase’s future success. According to Phillips, any “rational court” would see through the tactic."
__
Istria with Terra may repeat itself. 5.1% is not 20% per annum, but it is a very large profit that no bank in the US gives on deposits.
