Circle's USDC stablecoin deployed on Avalanche blockchain

Circle has launched its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Avalanche blockchain network, the company announced on Tuesday.

The news marks another boost for Avalanche’s stablecoin diversity push following Tether’s launch of its USDT stablecoin in November, as well as e-Money’s suite of interest-bearing, fiat-backed stablecoins earlier in the year.

As part of the announcement, Circle stated that USDC support on Avalanche could empower more developers to build eco-friendly decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Avalanche’s DeFi scene has grown over 30-fold since August in terms of total value locked (TVL) from $300 million to $10.6 billion, according to data from DeFi Llama.

With Avalanche being compatible with Ethereum’s smart contract standards, USDC will be available on the Avalanche Contract Chain (C-Chain) to enable the seamless creation of Ethereum-compatible contracts.

Tuesday’s announcement also increases USDC’s multi-chain presence with the stablecoin supported on the Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Stellar, and Hedera networks.

While Tether is still the dominant stablecoin, USDC has become one of its fastest-growing competitors and controls almost a third of the total stablecoin supply, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.