US dollar stablecoin issuer Circle has announced that it has begun minting USD Coin (USDC) natively on Ethereum layer 2 scaling protocol Polygon.
USDC is accessible to both users and developers without the need to bridge the stablecoin from Ethereum or other blockchain. Circle Mint and Circle’s developer API’s now support Polygon-based USDC, tapping into Polygon’s scaling capabilities.
1/ It’s official. #ItsStillStableSeptember and $USDC is now available natively on @0xPolygon PoS mainnet!
Learn the benefits of native USDC and how to switch from bridged USDC.e https://t.co/KcK55sT4KH pic.twitter.com/Gm6HjR62KW
— Circle (@circle) October 10, 2023
According to the announcement from Circile, businesses and developers will be able to build decentralized applications (DApps) with USDC on Polygon. The new offering is touted to enable near-instant, low fee transactions for a variety of use cases including payments, remittances, trading, borrowing and lending.
Before Circle’s announcement of its native Polygon USDC offering, users of the protocol had to make use of bridge USDC (USDC.e) from the Ethereum blockchain. The token is not issued by Circle, as opposed to its new offering that it assures will be redeemable at a 1:1 ratio for US dollars.
Related: Circle launches USDC stablecoin on Polkadot Asset Hub
Circle had previously provided support of deposits and withdrawals for USDC.e on Polygon for Circle Mint and its APIs. The issuer plans to discontinue this service from Nov. 10, warning users that attempt to send bridge USDC.e to Circle Mint accounts that their assets may be unrecoverable after this date.
Circle also notes that provision of native Polygon USDC will enable low cost global payments and remittances as well as accessibility to trading, borrowing, and lending on leading DeFi protocols including Aave, Compound, Curve, Uniswap and Quickswap.
The USDC issuer also plans to launch cross-chain transfer protocol to Polygon to enable interoperability with other blockchain networks. This is set to unlock Polygon-based USDC transfers to and from the Ethereum blockchain.
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