Question 1

What is it?

Accepted Answer

Aave USDC v1 (aUSDC) is a form of aTokens minted by the Aave platform. aTokens are tokens minted and burnt upon supply and withdrawal of assets to an Aave market, which denote the amount of the underlying crypto assets supplied and the yield earned on those assets. The value of aUSDC is pegged to the value of the corresponding supplied USDC asset at a 1:1 ratio, and it can be safely stored, transferred, or traded. All yield collected by the aUSDC reserves are distributed to aUSDC holders directly by continuously increasing their wallet balance. The contract for aUSDC was created on January 8, 2020​.

Question 2

What is it used for?

Accepted Answer

aUSDC is used to represent the amount of USDC supplied to the Aave market and the interest earned on those assets. When users supply USDC to the Aave LendingPool, they receive an equivalent amount of aUSDC, which will start accruing interest immediately. The balance of aUSDC held by a user includes both their principal balance and the yield generated by the principal balance, and it can be checked at any time using the balanceOf method. Users can withdraw their original assets from the LendingPool by burning the corresponding amount of aUSDC​.

In addition, aUSDC can be transferred to other accounts. However, it's important to note that by transferring aUSDC, users are transferring their balance of the underlying USDC asset. Only the account holding the aUSDC can withdraw the deposited asset. Also, it's worth mentioning that the liquidity rewards earned prior to the transfer of aUSDC are accrued by the user/address holding the aUSDC originally, but all future liquidity rewards will be earned by the new recipient​.

Question 3

Who created it?

Accepted Answer

The aUSDC token is part of the Aave platform, which was created by a team of coders led by Stani Kulechov. The platform launched in November 2017 as ETHLend and was rebranded to its current name, Aave, in September 2018.