In brief

  • The USDC stablecoin is heading to the Stellar blockchain network early next year.
  • It will make the third blockchain network to support USDC, after Ethereum and Algorand.
  • Up until recently, USDC was exclusive to Ethereum.

USDC, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin managed by Circle and Coinbase, is coming to the Stellar blockchain, Circle announced today. 

Circle will add USDC support to Stellar’s vast array of products, among them payments tools, infrastructure APIs and business accounts products, by the first quarter of next year. That means that these businesses can soon start using the Stellar-ized version of USDC.

“We are very excited to be able to support businesses and developers in building these financial inclusion solutions through USDC on Stellar in our platform,” said Circle in a blog post. The firm encourages Stellar developers to reach out. 

The support for Stellar doesn’t come from nowhere. Circle has long sought to end its dependence on the Ethereum blockchain. In June, it announced support for the Algorand blockchain.

Stellar is a far smaller blockchain than Ethereum, which houses its eponymous coin, the second largest by market cap. In comparison, Stellar, with a market cap of $1.5 billion, is far smaller than Ethereum, which has a market cap of $42 billion.

“The addition of USDC to Stellar will allow us to continue to expand our global reach in pursuit of this mission while opening up new avenues for growth and innovation for the developers and businesses building on the network,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, in a statement. 

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency token pegged to a real world asset—in this case, USDC is pegged to the US dollar. You give the Centre Consortium—the organization that manages the coin—one dollar, and it’ll give you one USDC token in return. 

With a market cap of about $2.7 billion, USDC is the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization. It’s dwarfed by Tether (USDT), which has a market cap of $15 billion. Thankfully, both are worth $1.