Fully backed digital dollars
Built for rapid, global payments and 24/7 financial markets, USDC is a regulated, digital currency that can always be redeemed 1:1 for US dollars.
Get Started with USDCWhy 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 regulated 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 to send USDC.
Traditional payments pass through multiple intermediaries, introducing additional cost that’s passed on to the sender.
Open, global access
Any business or person 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.
Widely used
USDC is readily available on popular exchanges and protocols, and thousands of developers are building with USDC.
Many private stablecoins are only usable within certain financial products, providing less utility.
Dollar stability & global reach
USDC enables businesses to offer payment connectivity and dollar-backed financial services to more people in more places.
- Cross-Border Payments
- Global Dollar Access
- Crypto Capital Markets
Send and receive funds faster
Enable low-cost payments around the world that can settle in seconds, for you or your customers.
Learn morePayroll
International remittances
P2P payments
Marketplace payouts
Expand access to dollars
Offer customers greater financial stability by enabling them to access digital dollars around the world.
Learn moreExchange
Bank
Fintech
Reduce operational risk
Integrate responsibly managed stablecoins that you and your customers can trust.
Learn moreExchange
DeFi Protocol
Lender
How to start using USDC
- Businesses
- Developers
- Individuals
Get USDC for your business
Circle Mint allows businesses to convert USD into USDC and vice versa, near-instantly. Today, Circle Mint is for qualified businesses and wholesale distributors of USDC.
Learn moreIntegrate USDC into your app
Build an app with USDC to deliver payments, financial services, and a stable store of value to anyone with an internet connection.
Visit Developer HubGet USDC for personal use
Access USDC and easily convert between USDC and local currency.
Find an exchangeA global network of partners using USDC
USDC is available natively on 15+ blockchains
Fortifying trust with transparency
Circle stablecoin reserve composition and monthly attestations are publicly available, so you always know USDC is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. USDC reserves are held in the management and custody of leading financial institutions and designed to provide holders with ready liquidity.
View ReservesUSDC in Circulation
As of May 16, 2024
USDC Reserves*
As of May 16, 2024
FAQs
USDC is a digital dollar backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets and is always 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.
Circle Mint enables liquidity providers and qualified businesses to redeem USDC 1:1 for USD.
Everyday users can use digital wallets and exchanges to convert between USDC and local currency.
USDC is natively supported for 16 blockchain networks: Algorand, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Celo, Ethereum, Flow, Hedera, NEAR, Noble, OP Mainnet, Polkadot, Polygon PoS, Solana, Stellar, 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.
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.
2024 outlook
Unleashing the power of open money
There’s a new internet financial system emerging thanks to USDC, Web3, blockchain networks, and the collaboration of some of the world’s best developers and technology companies.
Read Report