USDC Issuer Circle Adds Arbitrum Support to Web3 Platform
Date: 2024-09-13 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
Circle Internet Financial, the manager of the US Dollar Coin (USDC) stablecoin, has integrated the Arbitrum layer-two network into its Web3 infrastructure platform, according to a blog post on Sept. 12.
The Web3 platform provides USDC-focused programmable wallets, smart contract tools, and gas fee abstraction, and is now available on Arbitrum, the post noted. With a total value locked (TVL) of about $2.5 billion, Arbitrum is the largest layer-two network on Ethereum, according to DefiLlama.
Nikhil Chandhok, Circle’s chief product officer, said in a post on Platform X that the platform helps developers “build seamless native wallets that support USDC for global payments, e-commerce, and gaming,” among other things.
Circle’s Web3 tools also integrate with blockchains like Avalanche, Ethereum, Polygon PoS, and Solana, the post said.
The integration is Circle’s latest effort to accelerate USDC adoption as the stablecoin competes for market dominance with Tether’s USDT. USDC has a market cap of around $35 billion, significantly smaller than rival USDT, which is worth over $118 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
The competition has intensified with the launch of PayPal US (PYUSD) stablecoin in 2023. Its market cap surpassed $1 billion in August.
In 2023, Circle made USDC available directly on Arbitrum, allowing applications to issue USDC directly on the layer-2 network without the need for bridges from other networks. Arbitrum was also integrated into the cross-chain transfer protocol, effectively making USDC bridges free by managing the token issuance and burn processes between networks.
Arbitrum is a particularly important platform for Circle, as it is recognized as a major hub for decentralized finance (DeFi) among layer-2 networks. According to DefiLlama, Arbitrum accounts for nearly $4.7 billion in stablecoins, which are used in applications such as lending, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and leveraged perpetual trading.
Arbitrum is also gaining traction in the real-world asset token space, which is expected to become a multi-trillion dollar market in the coming years, a representative from rival network Polygon told Cointelegraph in August.
On August 27, Ondo Finance, an RWA protocol, announced that it was expanding access to its Ondo US Dollar Yield Token (USDY) to Arbitrum. On August 8, asset manager Franklin Templeton announced that it was expanding its FOBXX fund to the layer-two network.
