Centre was a consortium founded in 2018 by Circle and Coinbase to govern the USDCstablecoin. It set the technical and policy standards for the token, including the rules for which regulated firms could issue it and how the smart contracts, such as the function used for freezing addresses, were managed, while Circle handled issuance and reserves in practice. The structure was meant to let USDC become an open standard that other issuers could join, though Circle remained the main issuer. In August 2023, Circle and Coinbase announced that Centre would be wound down, with Circle taking full responsibility for USDC governance and Coinbase taking an equity stake in Circle. Also see Stablecoin Issuer.