Fully backed digital dollars
Built for rapid global payments and 24/7 financial markets, USDC is a regulated digital currency you can redeem 1:1 for US dollars.
Why businesses choose USDC
USDC works seamlessly across applications and platforms around the globe, using blockchain infrastructure that’s faster, less expensive, and more customizable than legacy rails.
Stable & regulated
USDC is regulated1 and fully reserved. Reserves are transparently held at regulated financial institutions with published monthly attestations.
Unregulated, non-transparent stablecoins take risk with their reserves and do not legally separate them for the benefit of stablecoin holders.
Instant settlement
USDC transactions can settle in seconds worldwide. All day, every day.
Legacy payments can take multiple days to settle and don’t move after hours, on weekends, or during holidays.
Near-zero cost
Global payments can be made for less than a cent, so it’s affordable for anyone to send USDC.
Traditional payments pass through multiple intermediaries, introducing additional cost that’s passed on to the sender.
Open, global access
Businesses and people with an internet connection and digital wallet can send and receive USDC.
Senders and receivers typically need bank accounts and specific apps or platforms to transact.
Dollar stability & global reach
Send & receive
funds faster
Enable low-cost payments around the world that can settle in seconds, for you or your customers.
Payroll
International remittances
P2P payments
Marketplace payouts
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Expand access
to dollars
Offer customers greater financial stability by enabling them to access digital dollars around the world.
Exchange
Bank
Fintech
Reduce operational risk
Integrate responsibly managed stablecoins that you and your customers can trust.
Exchange
DeFi Protocol
Lender
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Fortifying trust with transparency
FAQs
USDC is a digital dollar backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets and is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. The majority of the USDC reserve is invested in the Circle Reserve Fund (USDXX), an SEC-registered 2a-7 government money market fund. Daily, independent, third-party reporting on the portfolio is publicly available via BlackRock.
Learn more about our approach to transparency.
USDC is natively supported for 16 blockchain networks: Algorand, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Celo, Ethereum, Hedera, NEAR, Noble, OP Mainnet, Polkadot, Polygon PoS, Solana, Stellar, Sui and ZKsync – with more expected in the future.
USDC has also been bridged to many emerging blockchains by third-party bridges, resulting in the creation of bridged forms of USDC such as USDC.e.
For more details, see our developer docs.
Individuals and everyday users, startups, and small businesses can access USDC from exchanges. Learn more on USDC.com.
Circle Mint - Circle Mint enables wholesale providers such as exchanges, institutional traders, wallet providers, banks, and large financial institutions to directly redeem USDC 1:1 for USD from Circle. Circle Mint is not available to individuals.
Businesses can apply for a Circle Mint account to exchange US dollars for USDC. When a business deposits USD into their Circle Account, Circle issues the equivalent amount of USDC to the business. The process of issuing new USDC is known as “minting.” This process creates new USDC in circulation.
Similarly, when a business wants to exchange their USDC for US dollars, the business can deposit USDC into their Circle Mint account and request to receive US dollars. This process of redeeming USDC is known as “burning.” This process takes USDC out of circulation.
When US dollars are swapped for USDC on a digital asset exchange, the exchange will typically provide the balance of USDC it has on-hand to fulfill the swap. If the exchange needs more USDC to fulfill the swap, the exchange will often use its Circle Mint account to mint more USDC.
USDC is a fully reserved stablecoin, which is a type of cryptocurrency, or digital dollar. Unlike other cryptocurrencies that fluctuate in price, USDC is designed to maintain price equivalence to the US dollar. USDC is a stable store of value that benefits from the speed and security of blockchain technology.
USDC is issued by Circle, a company in the private sector, while a CBDC would be issued by a government. While most CBDCs are only in the research phase, USDC exists today and is widely used by millions of people around the world. Circle has developed the technology to enable USDC to run on 15 public blockchain networks, with open-source and private market innovation driving rapid progress in dollar digital currency models.
Read more about Circle’s insights on the Federal Reserve’s CBDC discussion.
Deloitte & Touche LLP is Circle’s independent auditor and has audited Circle’s financials since fiscal 2022. Prior to Deloitte, Grant Thornton LLP served as Circle’s independent auditor from 2015.
2Reference to any specific company, product, service, or website of any third party does not constitute an implied or express endorsement, recommendation, favoring or validation by Circle. The content presented on this website is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice. Reliance upon this website or any content presented is at the sole discretion of the reader; Circle shall not be liable for any damage or loss relating to the use of or reliance upon any such content or information presented.
*USDC is backed by the equivalent value of US dollar denominated assets held as reserves for the benefit of USDC holders. Cash is held at regulated financial institutions. The portfolio of the Circle Reserve Fund, which can contain short-dated US Treasuries, overnight US Treasury repurchase agreements, and cash, is custodied at The Bank of New York Mellon and is managed by BlackRock.