USDC launching on Polygon PoS, Base and Polkadot blockchains

by RT Watson and Frank Chaparro

Stablecoins • August 23, 2023, 10:18AM EDT

Published 1 minute earlier on

UPDATED: August 23, 2023, 10:25AM EDT

The Block

Quick Take

The USDC stablecoin founded by Circle and Coinbase is launching on six new blockchains including Polygon PoS, Base, Polkadot, NEAR, Optimism and Cosmos via the Noble network.
Announcement follows Coinbase taking a stake in Circle in an effort to shore up USDC amid crumbling share of stablecoin market.

Circle Internet Financial, now the sole organization in charge of managing USDC, is set to announce the stablecoin will be launching on six new blockchains that include Polygon PoS, Base, Polkadot, NEAR, Optimism and Cosmos via the Noble network, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Earlier this week, Circle and Coinbase said they had reorganized their relationship with regard to USDC. Besides disbanding the Centre Consortium, which had managed the governance of USDC since its founding in 2018, Coinbase also acquired a stake in Circle.

USDC was already available on Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Stellar, Algorand, Tron, Flow, Solana and Hedera. The addition of more blockchains could boost adoption of the stablecoin.

USDC market share

While USDC has been losing market share, the world's biggest stablecoin issued by Tether has been asserting its dominance. Additionally, Silicon Valley payments firm PayPal has launched its own stablecoin.

Coinbase and Circle have little influence over what people's preferred stablecoins are, argues Avivah Litan, a senior blockchain industry analyst with Gartner who is dubious adding more protocols will make a difference.

"The bottom line is money is flowing out of the chains, and support for more chains won’t make it flow in," she added.

About Authors

RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block who covers a wide array of topics including U.S.-based companies, blockchain gaming and NFTs. Formerly covered entertainment at The Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy while focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previous to that he covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil while at Bloomberg. RT has interviewed a diverse cast of characters including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers and convicted criminals. Holds a master's degree in Digital Sociology.

Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].