USDC

USDC is a fully collateralized U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by Circle. Each token is designed to be redeemable one-for-one for dollars, with reserves held in cash and short-dated U.S. Treasuries. It is the second-largest stablecoin by circulating supply and is widely regarded as one of the most transparent, with regular reserve attestations.

USDC launched in 2018, originally through the CENTRE consortium founded by Circle and Coinbase; Circle later took over sole issuance. The project positions itself as regulated digital dollar infrastructure — USDC is issued under U.S. money-transmission oversight and is compliant with the EU's MiCA framework, giving it a foothold with institutions and fintech companies as well as crypto-native users.

How USDC works

USDC is a token deployed across dozens of blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Stellar. Circle mints new tokens when customers deposit dollars and burns them on redemption, so the circulating supply tracks actual reserves rather than a fixed cap. Because it lives on public chains, USDC can be transferred globally in seconds and plugged directly into smart contracts. Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol also lets USDC move natively between supported networks by burning tokens on one chain and minting them on another.

Role in the ecosystem

USDC serves as the bridge between traditional dollars and on-chain activity. It is a core settlement asset in DeFi lending and trading protocols, a common quote currency on exchanges, and an increasingly popular rail for payments and remittances. Its emphasis on regulatory compliance and reserve transparency makes it the stablecoin of choice for many businesses and institutional users.