Circle Adding USDC to Polygon for Web3 Payments

Fintech company Circle is adding its crypto stablecoin, the US Dollar Coin (USDC), to the Polygon blockchain.

With Polygon USDC, users won’t have to bridge their USDC from Ethereum’s mainnet to Polygon. The Ethereum-Polygon bridge is cumbersome for many because it’s slower than typical ETH transactions and incurs Ethereum mainnet gas fees.

Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire shared in a statement his reasoning behind why the company is adding USDC to Polygon, which now features roughly 20,000 dApps.

“Supporting Polygon USDC in the Circle Account and Circle APIs is another step toward making USDC interoperable across more leading blockchains, helping foster greater adoption for dollar digital currency on the internet,” Allaire said.

While Polygon-native USDC may be new, USDC isn’t—$110 million was poured into its creation by venture capitalists in 2018.

Today, USDC exists as a multi-chain stablecoin. It can be used on Ethereum’s mainnet, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Avalanche, Flow, Tron, Hedera, and now Polygon.

Polygon Technology’s Enterprise Lead Antoni Martin told Decrypt in an interview that he believes Polygon USDC will help smooth over Polygon’s fiat onramp and user experience. It will also be integrated for automatic payouts.

“In the mid/long term, we see this option as a very good move for international trade, for remittances for different countries,” Martin added.

Circle’s addition of USDC comes shortly after Tether added its stablecoin, USDT, to Polygon in May.