Circle Launches Bridged USDC Contract For EVM Chains

Circle has deployed a bridged token contract for USDC, the second-largest centralized stablecoin, in a bid to service emerging and future networks.

Announced on Nov. 21, the bridged USDC standard allows Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible chains to quickly and permissionlessly migrate the stablecoin onto their network. The standard allows third parties to lock USDC on Ethereum or another network, and bridge corresponding tokens onto their network.

Unlike native USDC, tokens using the bridged standard are not redeemable for USD nor are they compatible with Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol.

“Many more blockchains may emerge and rise to prominence over the next several years,” Circle said. “While bridged USDC is unofficial and not issued nor redeemable by Circle, it serves as a proxy to USDC that’s extensible to any ecosystem where bridging is made possible. This helps developers bootstrap stablecoin liquidity for their applications and enables users to begin exploring new use cases early.”

Several rising Layer 2s have already implemented Circle’s bridged USDC standard, including Linea, Scroll, and Kroma.

“Goodbye and good riddance to USDC liquidity fragmentation,” Linea tweeted. “USDC’s bridged token standard will revolutionize the stablecoin experience on L2s.”

Users can also leverage the bridged USDC standard to migrate Circle’s EURC stablecoin across EVM chains.

USDC expansion

The launch comes as Circle is expanding the presence of its stablecoins across the web3 ecosystem.

USDC is now issued natively across 15 different networks, up from eight 12 months ago. Circle launched a flurry of integrations in September and October, including on leading Ethereum Layer 2s in Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, in addition to “Layer 0” networks Polkadot and Cosmos.

However, Circle noted the rapid proliferation of new Ethereum scaling solutions and Layer 1 blockchains, conceding that new native USDC deployments could struggle to keep pace with the emergence of new networks.

“With the meteoric rise of scaling solutions like L2s/L3s, modular blockchains, and new high performance L1s, Circle faces a significant challenge with ecosystem innovation outpacing the speed of new USDC deployments,” Circle said.