USD Coin (USDC), the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization after Tether (USDT), continues to expand with various blockchain networks, which Polkadot launched today.
USDC issuer Circle has officially launched the USD Coin on the Polkadot network, the firm announced on Sept. 19. According to the Circle website, Polkadot USDC is immediately available for developers and users as the stablecoin can now be transferred to Polkadot parachains via the XCM protocol using the Circle Account and Circle API.
According to the announcement, PolkadotUSDC is natively issued on the Polkadot Asset Hub, a common parachain designed for the issuance, management, and transfer of digital assets in the Polkadot ecosystem.
Circle emphasizes that the Circle Account and Circle API only support Polkadot USDC natively issued by the Polkadot Asset Hub in the Polkadot ecosystem. This means that users must transfer USDC from their Circle Account to an external Polkadot Asset Hub wallet address before using XCM.
When transferring USDT from Polkadot Asset Hub to other parachains via XCM, users must transfer back to Polkadot Asset Hub via XCM before depositing into their Circle Account, Circle said, adding:
“Please do not attempt to deposit XCM transferred USDC from a parachain other than Polkadot Asset Hub to your Circle Account, as this will not be recovered and may result in the loss of funds.”
Polkadot’s USDC support is another plus for the US dollar-pegged stablecoin. With the latest addition, USDC now supports a total of 14 different blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Tron, Stellar, Solana and more.
Similar to other blockchain integrations, Polkadot’s latest integration aims to maintain Circle as a major interoperable cryptocurrency as well as support low-cost payments. The addition of Polkadot features trading, borrowing and lending on parachains such as Centrifuge, HydraDX and Moonbeam.
Launched in 2020, Polkadot is a network of several independent blockchains, also called parachains. Such blockchains work in parallel with each other to allow faster transactions while benefiting from Polkadot’s overall security and decentralization.
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The number of blockchains supported by USDC is now higher than the number of networks supported by rival stablecoin USDT, which supports a total of 11 networks at the time of writing. In August 2023, the USDT issuing Tether stopped creating stablecoins on three blockchains, including Bitcoin Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash and Kusama. The company cited a lack of interest from users.
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