Gnosis Launches Circles 2.0: A Trust-Based Digital Currency Where Users Issue Their Own Tokens Over Time

Business Wire

21-05-2025

BERLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Gnosis, the architects of open applications and infrastructure for the new economy, today announced the launch of Circles 2.0, a radically new kind of personalised currency that anyone can create and use without needing a bank or government. Instead of relying on a centralised institution to print and set the value of money, each person issues their own Circles currency, which they can send and receive from people they trust. Circles 2.0 is delivered by the newly launched Metri app, the consumer-friendly, self-custodial wallet operating within the Gnosis ecosystem.
In a global economy that is ever more uncertain, Circles offers users the ability to take control of their wealth and create vibrant local economies based on trust, community and fairness. Circles' predictable and equitable money supply protocol builds on the Gnosis vision of a decentralized payment infrastructure to create a new global currency that empowers users and is designed to avoid the systemic advantage often seen in early token distribution models—creating a fairer starting point for all participants.
Martin Köppelmann, Co-Founder of Gnosis said, 'The goal of Circles is to introduce a complementary money system that doesn't put any participant or institution at an undue and systematic advantage over another while remaining attractive as a means of exchange and storage of value. We believe that by coupling the momentum of financial technology, together with products that propel OpenFi such as Gnosis Pay and CoW swap, we can provide enough immediate utility to solve the issues faced by new money systems and facilitate the next evolution in a completely decentralized financial system.'
An Equitable Currency For Trusted Exchange
In terms of token issuance, every account holder will mint 1 CRC per hour or 24 per day for as long as they maintain minimum activity levels on the platform. Each user's CRC is a unique token. Real-life trust—whether with friends, family or community members—is replicated through trusted connections within the system. When a user trusts someone else, they agree to accept their unique CRC. If the user doesn't know someone directly, but they have trusted connections in common, they can still send CRC to the third user by leveraging common connections as intermediaries, creating an active web–or circle–of trust.
CRC can also be earned by inviting new users, by creating trusted connections, or by being bought in exchange for bridged stablecoins such USDCe, GBPe, and EURe. As a sign of early demand and expectation, there are 100,000 users on the waitlist for Circles, which has a value initially anticipated to fluctuate between $0.01 and $0.05. Users can also back their Circles with assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum or sDAI to establish price and make their Circles tradeable. Users will be able to spend the Circles they have created for real-life goods and services via Circles Marketplace, where trusted vendors will be accepting CRC, which is expected to go live some weeks after the launch.
Key features of Circles 2.0:
Every account holder has the right to mint their own individual Circles (CRC) at a rate of 1 CRC per hour.
All CRC balances are reduced in nominal value at a rate of 7% per year to encourage spending and discourage hoarding.
Groups can now be created and joined based on shared factors including but not limited to location, interests, events and enterprise affiliation.
CRC is designed to be used as a form of currency between trusted connections, as opposed to a digital asset that is accrued or speculated upon.
The launch of Circles 2.0 seeks to provide an equitable solution to the concerns about centralised control of money issuance and build on the innovation of cryptocurrency while avoiding the problem of undue and systemic advantage where early adopters benefit most.
The use of Metri makes it easy for anyone to enter the world of decentralized money, with a focus on personal currencies, stablecoins and accessibility, and to spend their assets using a debit card. Metri is a user-friendly platform that integrates with cutting-edge OpenFi solutions, including the Circles Protocol, Gnosis Pay, and CoW Swap, and offers a comprehensive suite of tools for users.