Exchange USD Coin (USDC)

USD Coin (USDC) is Circle's dollar stablecoin. Every token is backed by dollars and short-term US Treasuries, and Circle itself issues and redeems USDC separately on each network where it is native.

People swap USDC to move it to the recipient's network — say, from Ethereum to Solana or Base, where a transfer costs cents — or to take it off an exchange into their own wallet.

Circle issues USDC itself on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Stellar, Algorand, Sui, Aptos, NEAR and a number of other networks. Besides this native USDC there are bridged copies with a different contract: USDC.e on Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and Avalanche, USDbC on Base. On BNB Smart Chain the common version is Binance-Peg USDC, issued by Binance. A recipient expecting native USDC may not credit a bridged token, so check the contract.

A 42-character 0x address is the same on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain, BNB Smart Chain, Sonic and other EVM networks, so the network cannot be told apart by looking. Sui and Aptos addresses also start with 0x but are longer, 66 characters, and do not work on EVM networks. On Solana an address is a string of 32–44 letters and digits, on Stellar it starts with G and has 56 characters, on Algorand it is 58 capital letters and digits, and on NEAR it is a name like name.near or 64 hex characters.

On Stellar and Algorand the wallet has to allow the token before it can receive it. On Stellar that means opening a trustline to USDC from the Circle issuer; on Algorand, opting in to asset ID 31566704. Without it the transfer fails. Each trustline raises a Stellar account's minimum balance by 0.5 XLM, each opted-in asset raises the Algorand minimum by 0.1 ALGO. Exchanges usually ask for a memo on Stellar deposits.

Network fees are paid in the network's own coin. On Ethereum and its L2s — Base, Arbitrum, Optimism — that is ETH, and it has to be ETH on the same L2 you are sending from. Polygon gas is paid in POL, Avalanche in AVAX, Solana in SOL. On Solana, the first time a wallet receives a token a separate token account is created for it, and the sender pays for it with a small amount of SOL.

Since 2024 Circle no longer issues USDC on Tron and has ended support for that network. TRC20 tokens still move, but many exchanges have closed the network, so make sure the recipient accepts it before sending. Circle can block an address when the law or a court requires it: USDC on that address can be neither sent nor received.