The issuer of the USDC stablecoin, Circle, released a response on Feb. 17 to the Central Bank of Ireland’s discussion paper on consumer protection, which called for industry insight into improving consumer-focused financial products.

The stablecoin provider listed a series of benefits of blockchain technology in relation to consumer protection, including increased competition, disaggregation of financial services, privacy protection, improved financial literacy through transparency, and the ability for regulators to track on-chain data. 

Circle also recommended how financial supervisors can support innovation while protecting consumers’ best interests. It urged regulators to engage in ‘crypto-native’ activities such as reviewing on-chain data and assessing digital assets based on their unique design with industry guidance taking “the different asset types, activities, risks and incentives into account.”