Native USDC & CCTP V2 are coming to Sonic: What You Need to Know

We're excited to announce that Sonic will be upgraded from Bridged USDC Standard to native USDC and gain support for CCTP V2. 

Sonic is a high-performance EVM Layer-1 blockchain built to scale DeFi apps with sub-second transaction finality and potential to achieve 400,000+ transactions per second. Launched in December 2024, Sonic has quickly become the fastest growing Bridged USDC Standard blockchain with more than $480M in bridged USDC (as of April 29, 2025) and nearly $1B in Total Value Locked (TVL) across 125+ apps. Sonic enables developers to build onchain apps for a variety of use cases, including DeFi (e.g., decentralized exchanges, crosschain liquidity solutions, high-frequency trading, derivatives trading), payments, NFT marketplaces, and more.

With this upcoming launch, Sonic will receive a seamless, in-place upgrade from bridged USDC to native USDC, no action needed by developers or users. Sonic will also gain support for CCTP V2 for direct connectivity to a range of blockchains including: Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, and Linea, with more expected. With no need to lock up liquidity, CCTP V2’s burn-and-mint process enables secure, near-instant, and capital-efficient USDC transfers across blockchains with enhanced composability for post-transfer actions.

Enhancing Liquidity and Utility: The Shift to Native USDC on Sonic

As the fastest growing Bridged USDC Standard blockchain, Sonic has showcased its benefits rapidly—reducing liquidity fragmentation by establishing a single form of bridged USDC for its ecosystem to build around. Representing more than 87% of total stablecoin circulation on Sonic, Bridged USDC Standard has been instrumental in driving significant activity and growth within the ecosystem. 

The upgrade to native USDC will offer significant benefits to Sonic developers, apps, and users by enabling a seamless transition without the need for ecosystem education or liquidity migration incentives. After the upgrade, bridged USDC (USDC.e) on Sonic will automatically convert to native USDC (USDC), requiring no code changes or asset swaps for apps or holders.

Key Benefits of Native USDC and CCTP V2

• Regulated¹, fully reserved, and redeemable 1:1 for US dollars²
• Institutional on/off-ramps with Circle Mint³ for eligible businesses
• Easy integration into new and existing apps
• Fast, secure, and frictionless crosschain experiences

How the Upgrade Will Happen

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the upgrade process that is expected to take ~1 week to complete: 

1. Bridging Pause (May 6): Sonic will pause bridging activity for bridged USDC (USDC.e) on its canonical bridge between Ethereum and Sonic while settling any pending transactions. Other bridge routes will remain unaffected.
2. Ownership Transfer and Upgrade: Sonic will transfer ownership of the bridged USDC contract to Circle, enabling the upgrade to native USDC.
3. CCTP V2 is Live: Circle will deploy CCTP V2 on Sonic, enabling direct connectivity to a range of blockchains including: Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, and Linea for seamless USDC crosschain transfers.

Important Details About the Upgrade Process

• During this period, bridged USDC (USDC.e) on Sonic will remain fully usable for trading, spending, and swapping. Users can swap USDC.e for any supported asset and also bridge to other blockchains using 3rd-party bridging providers.
• The existing bridged USDC mainnet address on Sonic will remain the same following the upgrade to native USDC, it will simply be renamed:
  
  • Token Name: USDC
  • Token Symbol: USDC
  • Mainnet Address: 0x29219dd400f2bf60e5a23d13be72b486d4038894

Stay tuned for launch

We’re thrilled for the impact this upgrade will have on the Sonic ecosystem. More details to come. Feel free to reach out on Discord and engage with our team if you have any questions.

^{1.  USDC is issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. A list of Circle’s regulatory authorizations can be found here.} 

^{2. Circle Mint customers are able to redeem USDC directly from Circle. In addition, Circle will redeem all USDC presented to it for redemption in compliance with MiCAR, regardless of whether the holder is a Circle Mint customer. Circle Mint is currently available only to institutions and is not available to individuals.}

^{3. Circle Mint and money transmission services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. Circle Internet Financial, LLC, NMLS # 1201441, is a licensed provider of money transmission services. A full list of Circle’s licenses can be found here. Circle Mint is currently available only to institutions and is not available to individuals.}