OFIs
Work with senders, onramp fiat to crypto, and connect through CPN for
cross-border payments.
BFIs
Receive stablecoins through CPN and offramp into local fiat for receivers in
the destination market.
CPN
Coordinates OFIs and BFIs by aggregating quotes, routing payments, and
managing onchain settlement between participants.
Prerequisites
As an OFI, plan for the following before onboarding:- Access to USDC liquidity from your own sources or through Circle. If you use Circle, see How-to: Set Up Circle On/Off-Ramps for CPN Payments for fiat-to-USDC and related transfers.
- A custodial or signing solution for USDC and technical capability to interact with blockchains (sign and observe transactions). If you use Circle for the operational wallet, see How-to: Set Up a Circle Wallet for CPN Payments. If you use your own wallet stack, see Bring your own wallet for CPN and the Wallet provider compatibility reference.
- Established Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes in place for your customers
Circle Wallets and Circle On/Off-Ramps are optional capabilities for CPN.
Many institutions already hold USDC and use their own wallets. The same
developer documentation applies to every CPN customer; the linked how-tos are
for teams that choose Circle for those layers. If you’re a BFI or payout
partner, Circle may reach out proactively as CPN grows.
Key features
Real-time FX quoting and locking
CPN returns quotes from several BFIs in one step and locks the FX rate for
the payment, limiting exchange-rate risk for the OFI and customer.
Smart routing
Each payment is assigned to a BFI according to the OFI’s pricing and
operational preferences, for example cost and settlement speed.
Stablecoin-powered transfers
Payments are settled using USDC across supported
blockchains and
exchanged to local fiat currencies for the receiver through the BFI.
API integration
REST APIs and webhooks support payment flows and status monitoring, with
detailed documentation and support for integrators.
End-to-end encryption
Travel rule and beneficiary account data is encrypted by the OFI throughout
the payment process and can only be decrypted by the designated BFI.
Ticketing support
CPN allows institutions to create and manage support tickets for payments,
disputes, and reversals through the API. Circle handles routing and
resolution across the network.
CPN White PaperRead the
CPN White Paper
to learn more about the motivation for creating CPN and its intended use cases.
Entities in CPN
The following entities are referenced in this documentation and make up the key entities that allow CPN to perform cross-border transactions.- Senders (external): Businesses or individuals initiating cross-border payments
- Receivers (external): Businesses or individuals receiving cross-border payments
- Originating Financial Institutions (OFIs): Financial institutions that interface with senders, onramp fiat to USDC, and connect with BFIs through CPN for transfer and fiat offramp
- Beneficiary Financial Institutions (BFIs): Financial institutions that receive USDC from OFIs through CPN and provide an offramp to local fiat currency
- Circle Payments Network (CPN): Orchestration layer that aggregates financial institutions, vets participants, and facilitates money movement through onchain and offchain services.
CPN workflow
The following is a generic example of how a payment in CPN is performed. In this example, the OFI has a sender in the United States. The sender already has an account and completed KYC with the OFI. The sender wants to pay a receiver in Brazil. The sender wants to pay with USD and the receiver wants to receive the payment in Brazilian real (BRL).Quote generation
- OFI requests a list of quotes for the payment (USDC to BRL) from CPN
- CPN aggregates quotes from multiple BFIs
- CPN returns a list of quotes to the OFI
- OFI selects the best quote or asks the sender to select their preferred quote
Payment creation
- Sender accepts the quote
- OFI gets the requirements for travel rule data and beneficiary account information
- OFI creates a payment request (USDC to BRL) in CPN
- OFI collects and encrypts necessary payment details, such as travel rule data and beneficiary account information, and includes the encrypted data in the payment request
- BFI reviews the travel rule data (and may request additional information) and approves the payment request
Onchain transaction
- OFI ensures the required USDC balance is available in the operational wallet that will sign the transfer (onramping or internal treasury movements may be required first)
- OFI requests an onchain transaction object to transfer USDC to the destination address from CPN to sign
- OFI signs the onchain transaction object and sends it to CPN
- CPN validates and broadcasts the transaction
- CPN notifies the OFI and BFI when the onchain transaction is confirmed
Fiat settlement (no OFI action required)
- BFI initiates fiat payment after the onchain transaction is confirmed (transfer BRL to receiver’s bank account)
- BFI notifies CPN when the fiat payment is initiated and complete
- CPN notifies the OFI with the appropriate payment statuses
Get started
Run the OFI quickstart, learn how the CPN API fits together, then subscribe to payment webhooks:Integrate with CPN as an OFI
Request a quote, create a payment, complete the onchain USDC transfer, and
track status using Transactions V1 or V2.
CPN Integration Concepts
Understand how CPN APIs work together, including quotes, payments,
transactions, and the JSON request and response model.
Set up Webhook Notifications
Expose a subscriber endpoint and register for CPN notifications so your
systems react to payment and transaction updates.