Circle's Euro Stablecoin Coming to Solana in 2023

Crypto payments company Circle will launch its Euro-backed stablecoin Euro Coin on Solana in the first half of 2023.

During a presentation at the Solana Breakpoint conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Circle director of engineering Marcus Boorstin said that "there's already a lot of enthusiasm from the ecosystem" for the launch.

He announced that crypto exchange FTX will support deposits and withdrawals of Euro Coin on Solana at launch. In addition, Solana-based DeFi protocols Radium and Solend have "announced their intent to do so as well."

"We're really excited with the use cases that Euro Coin will unlock on Solana's ultra-fast, ultra-low cost network," Boorstin said, with those use cases including "24/7 instant FX on-chain," as well as "seamless payments in Euros with Solana Pay."

Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol comes to Solana

Boorstin also revealed that Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol will launch on Solana in the first half of 2023, initially supporting native transfers of its USDC stablecoin, and extending to Euro Coin "at a later date."

The Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol is a permissionless infrastructure that enables USDC to move natively across supported blockchains. It works by sending UDSC on the outgoing chain to be burned, while minting the equivalent amount of USDC on the destination chain.

"We expect a wide range of bridges, wallets and dapps of all types to serve end users and facilitate seamless movement of USDC throughout the crypto ecosystem," Boorstin said.

He added that the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol is expected to first launch on Ethereum and Avalanche in January 2023, with Solana support coming in the first half of the year.