Key takeaways:
- USD Coin operator and issuer Circle has announced support for USDC on the Polygon network
- Circle Account and Circle API users will now be able to seamlessly tap into USDC’s liquidity on Polygon
- Polygon is the ninth blockchain platform supported by USDC
Circle unveils support for Polygon USDC
Circle – the operator and issuer of the world’s second largest stablecoin USD Coin – announced on Tuesday that the fintech company’s array of products and services, including Circle Account and Circle APIs, now support USDC on Polygon.
Polygon is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, allowing users to benefit from faster and lower-cost transactions. The popularity of L2 networks skyrocketed in recent years due to Ethereum’s inability to process an adequate number of transactions due to the emergence of NFTs and DeFi products, which leads to network congestion and high gas fees.
According to the official announcement, support for Polygon USDC will allow Circle Account and Circle API users to seamlessly tap into the Polygon network without having to manually bridge USDC from Ethereum to Polygon. This will allow easier access to crypto trading platforms, swapping, borrowing, and lending DeFi products, NFT trading, and more.
With the addition of the Polygon blockchain, USDC now exists on nine blockchain platforms, including the aforementioned Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, TRON, Avalanche, Flow, and Hedera.
The news of USDC expanding to a new blockchain comes less than two weeks after Tether announced the launch of its USDT stablecoin on the Polygon network.
USDC is the fourth largest digital asset by market capitalization, with the total value of all USDC in circulation amounting to more than $53 billion. For context, the third-largest digital asset, USDT, currently boasts a market cap of over $83 billion.
