Circle launches support for Polygon USDC stablecoin

The payments platform from financial technology company and USDC stablecoin issuer Circle now supports Polygon USD Coin (USDC).

According to a statement released on Tuesday (7), Polygon USDC is the first “bridge” version of the stablecoin to be supported on the platform. In crypto, “bridges” are used for transferring native cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another or to layer 2 networks.

Polygon USD Coin (USDC)

As reported by Circle, with the support, developers using its APIs will be able to conveniently automate fiat currency flows to Polygon USDC.

It is, according to the company, an important feature for many use cases of DeFi, payments and NFT applications.

“The support within the Circle Account gives companies, exchanges and institutional traders faster and easier access to Polygon USDC. This includes, for example, the ability to exchange it for native USDC on eight other networks,” said Circle.

According to the announcement, Polygon USDC is the first “bridge” version of the stablecoin to gain support on the platform. Its integration aims to eliminate the expensive and time-consuming process of connecting ETH USDC to Polygon manually via the Polygon Bridge.

That is, companies will be able to convert fiat currencies to Polygon USDC in seconds. They will then be able to convert back to the initial fiat currency.

Meanwhile, institutional traders can automate access to Polygon USDC with a Circle account for use in crypto capital markets.

Of the initiative, Jeremy Allaire, CEO and co-founder of Circle, said:

“Polygon is an attractive entry point for companies and developers to build an established, liquid ecosystem with faster settlement times and reduced costs. Supporting Polygon USDC on the Circle Account and Circle APIs is another step towards making USDC interoperable on more leading blockchains, helping to drive greater adoption.”

About Polygon

Polygon is a layer 2 scalability solution for the ETH blockchain. As reported by Circle, the network has the largest developer ecosystem and the most liquidity on Web3.

With Polygon Bridge, users can access digital assets on the ETH network, with faster and more accessible transactions on the network.

Recently, Polygon pledged $20 million for a series of actions to combat climate change. Its goal is to achieve carbon negative status by 2022.

“We are excited to see one of the fastest growing dollar digital currencies in the space become available on Polygon,” said Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon. “Polygon USDC will enable businesses and exchanges in our ecosystem to further expand the DeFi community, providing their growing user base with a seamless and cost-effective experience.”

In addition to supporting “bridging” USDC on Polygon, Circle issues USDC natively on Algorand, Avalanche, ETH, Flow, Hedera, Solana, Stellar and TRON.

With over $54 billion in circulation as of June 1, 2022, USDC is one of the largest dollar-denominated digital currencies on the market.

The stablecoin is second only to Tether’s USDT, which has a $72.3 billion market cap.