What is USDC?

USDC is a digital dollar issued by Circle, also known as a stablecoin, running on many of the world’s leading blockchains. Designed to represent US dollars on the internet, USDC is backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets so that it's always redeemable 1:1 for USD.

Circle publishes monthly attestation reports for USDC reserve holdings on our Transparency page.

USDC Revolutionizes Commerce and Financial Services

Circle developed USDC to usher in a world where the US dollar is accessible to businesses and people around the globe without needing a traditional bank account. Digital currencies like USDC inherit the speed, efficiency, and security of public blockchain networks to bring about transformative benefits:

• Open and programmable
• Globally accessible
• Available 24/7/365
• Instant settlement at near-zero cost

Before USDC, businesses needed traditional banking solutions to accept payments, send remittances to vendors and suppliers, and manage their corporate treasuries. In contrast to USDC, legacy payment methods are slow, expensive, and limited by their lack of interoperability with other systems.

USDC makes money programmable, providing businesses and developers the ability to build innovative applications and services on an open platform that anyone can connect to -- globally, quickly, and cost-effectively.

How to Access USDC

Qualified businesses can apply for a Circle Mint account to readily convert USD to and from USDC at no additional cost.

Developers can add support for USDC in their applications on a variety of public blockchain networks:

• Crypto-native developers often choose to integrate directly with the USDC smart contract to design customizable funds flows for their applications.
• Developers new to the blockchain industry can benefit from Circle's Developer Services product suite, designed to make it easy to build applications that leverage the power of USDC.
• Developers can use CCTP to build novel cross-chain apps that stack together the various functionalities of trading, lending, payments, NFTs, gaming, and more, all while keeping things simple for users.