Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched the USD Coin (USDC) on the Polkadot community, increasing the token’s native operations to 14 blockchain networks, together with Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and so on.
In line with a weblog submit by Circle on September 19, all builders and customers of the Polkadot community can now natively entry the USDC token with no need a bridge.
What To Know About Polkadot USDC?
The Polkadot USDC might be issued on the community’s Asset Hub based mostly on Circle’s announcement. To elucidate, the Polkadot community includes a number of unbiased blockhains referred to as parachains.
The Asset Hub is a particular parachain referred to as the “homebase” of all property within the Polkadot community. It’s designed to facilitate the creation, administration, and switch of digital property throughout all parachains within the Polkadot ecosystem.
Due to this fact, the issuance of USDC on the Polkadot Asset Hub permits the straightforward motion of the stablecoin to different parachains utilizing the XCM protocol, Polkadot’s native cross-consensus messaging format.
Commenting on the launch of Polkadot USDC, Björn Wagner, co-founder of Parity Applied sciences, the corporate behind Polkadot, has expressed a lot pleasure in direction of this improvement. Wagner mentioned:
Stablecoins are an vital constructing block for on-chain economies to flourish, and I’m thrilled that native USDC has lastly been issued on Polkadot’s Asset Hub, making it obtainable securely to all initiatives within the Polkadot ecosystem. USDC, issued by Circle, is the second largest stablecoin by market cap after USDT, which has already been issued natively on Polkadot’s Asset Hub. This pivotal second will increase liquidity and permit for simpler institutional entry to the Polkadot ecosystem.
Nonetheless, it’s value noting that Circle accounts and Circuit API will solely help Polkadot USDC natively minted on the Asset Hub. Because of this customers need to switch USDC from their Circle account to the Polkadot Asset Hub earlier than transferring it to a different parachain utilizing XCM.
Equally, all Polkadot customers should switch their USDC by means of the Asset Hub to a Circle account. The stablecoin issuing firm states that makes an attempt to maneuver the USDC instantly from a parachain to an exterior Circle account may end up in asset loss.
Circle Continues USDC Blockchain Enlargement
As earlier acknowledged, Circle’s launch of USDC on Polkadot extends the token’s native operations to 14 blockchains. In September alone, USDC had been natively launched on 4 different blockchain networks apart from Polkadot. These networks embrace the Close to protocol, the Noble blockchain, the OP Mainnet, and the Coinbase-developed Base community.
Contemplating the steep decline in USDC’s market share because the begin of 2023, these integrations are extensively welcome developments that might increase the adoption stage of the stablecoin.
On the time of writing, USDC nonetheless ranks because the second-largest stablecoin with a market cap worth of $25.51 billion, a 41% lower from the token’s market share in January, based mostly on information from DeFiLlama.
Whole crypto cap valued at $1.058 trillion on the hourly chart | Supply: TOTAL chart on Tradingview.com
Featured picture from CoinMarketCap, chart from Tradingview