Mint
To mint is to create new stablecoin units on a blockchain, which raises the token's total supply. For issuer-run coins only authorised addresses can mint: in Circle's USDC contract a 'minter' calls mint within its allowance, and Tether's USDT contract on Ethereum has an owner-only issue function that adds tokens to the owner address. MiCA requires e-money tokens to be issued at par value on receipt of funds. In Aave's GHO, users mint by borrowing against collateral.
What the sources say
| Source | Quote | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Circle stablecoin-evm FiatTokenV1.sol: mint function | "@notice Mints fiat tokens to an address." | GitHub |
| Circle stablecoin-evm FiatTokenV1.sol: mint raises totalSupply and checks the allowance | "require( _amount <= mintingAllowedAmount, "FiatToken: mint amount exceeds minterAllowance" ); totalSupply_ = totalSupply_.add(_amount);" | GitHub |
| TetherToken source on Etherscan (USDT, Ethereum): issue | "// Issue a new amount of tokens // these tokens are deposited into the owner address // // @param _amount Number of tokens to be issued function issue(uint amount) public onlyOwner {" | Etherscan |
| TetherToken source: issue adds to total supply | "balances[owner] += amount; _totalSupply += amount; Issue(amount);" | Etherscan |
| MiCA Art 49(3): issuance at par | "Issuers of e-money tokens shall issue e-money tokens at par value and on the receipt of funds." | publications.europa.eu |
| Aave docs: users mint GHO against collateral | "Users can mint GHO by supplying approved collateral assets into the Aave Protocol and borrowing GHO against them." | aave.com |
Related terms
See also
- Data: Stablecoin mint and burn: net issuance
- Explainer: What is a mint or a burn, and why isn't it a payment?
- Review: revain.org/coins/usdc/
- Review: revain.org/coins/usdt/
- Review: revain.org/coins/gho/
Checked against the sources on 2026-11-01.
revain.org
Sources
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/circlefin/stablecoin-evm/master/contracts/v1/FiatTokenV1.sol
- https://etherscan.io/address/0xdac17f958d2ee523a2206206994597c13d831ec7#code
- https://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/01d55833-0660-11ee-b12e-01aa75ed71a1.0006.03/DOC_1
- https://aave.com/docs/ecosystem/gho