Circle’s USDC stablecoin arrives on Arbitrum

Circle’s USDC stablecoin will appear on the L2 Arbitrum network from June 8, 2023.

This integration on the popular Layer 2 network is the result of Circle’s previous announcement that its dollar-backed stablecoin would be offered on new blockchains, including Arbitrum, during 2023.

USDC issued by Circle will be native on Arbitrum and will be considered the official version of USDC for the Arbitrum ecosystem. Over time, native USDC liquidity will increase and replace the ‘bridged USDC’ liquidity currently in circulation on Ethereum.

Circle also plans to deploy its cross-chain transfer protocol on Arbitrum, which currently has a total escrow value (TVL) of over $2.3 billion.

In parallel, Arbitrum will rename the Ethereum ‘bridged’ version of the USDC to “USDC.e” on blockchain explorers. This new integration will make USDC natively available on nine blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, TRON, Algorand, Stellar, Flow, Hedera and now Arbitrum.

Although USDC’s market cap has seen a decline this year in favor of Tether’s USDT, which recently hit a new all-time high, Circle recently launched EUROC, its euro-backed stablecoin, on Avalanche last week.