USD Coin USDC

USD Coin (USDC) is a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin launched in September 2018 and issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. It is designed to maintain a value of one U.S. dollar and can be redeemed 1:1 for USD through Circle by eligible institutional customers.

Unlike cryptocurrencies that operate on a dedicated blockchain, USDC is natively issued across multiple networks. Its supported ecosystems include Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Stellar, Avalanche, Polygon, Aptos, Sui, XRP Ledger, Polkadot and dozens of additional blockchains. The exact token implementation therefore varies between networks rather than relying on a single universal token standard.

USDC is issued when eligible Circle customers deposit U.S. dollars through Circle Mint, creating an equivalent amount of USDC. When USDC is redeemed for dollars, the corresponding tokens are burned and removed from circulation. As a result, USDC has a variable supply and no fixed maximum supply.

Circle states that USDC is fully backed by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets with reserve holdings equal to or greater than the amount of USDC in circulation. A majority of the reserve is held through the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered government money market fund managed by BlackRock, alongside eligible cash deposits. Circle also publishes reserve information and monthly third-party attestations.

USDC is widely used for blockchain-based payments, trading, settlement, decentralized finance and cross-chain transfers. Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol enables supported applications to move native USDC between compatible blockchains through a burn-and-mint process rather than relying on traditional wrapped-token bridges.

USDC remains a centrally issued stablecoin rather than a decentralized native cryptocurrency. Circle controls issuance and redemption and maintains compliance controls associated with USDC smart contracts. Users should therefore consider both the security of the underlying blockchain and the issuer, reserve and regulatory risks associated with holding a fiat-backed stablecoin.