Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Goes Native on Base Network

Circle’s stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, USDC, will activate natively on the Base network “next week,” according to a social media post made by CEO Jeremy Allaire on August 29.

The new version will supplant the current US Dollar Base Coin (USDbC), on which the majority of users rely. On August 9, Coinbase’s Base network went live.

No native version of USDC existed on the network at the time. Users were unable to deposit currency into a Circle account and receive USDC on Base in exchange.

To address this issue, the Base team permitted users to bridge USDC to Ethereum using an official bridge application. The token issued by the bridge is referred to as “USDbC,” and it is supported by native USDC locked on the Ethereum network.

The announcement dated August 29 states that Circle will shortly begin issuing USDC on Base, eliminating the need for a bridged coin backed by the Ethereum version.

A companion blog post indicates that the contract for the new token has already been deployed to Base. On the day of the launch, the team will clarify how USDbC can be exchanged for USD.

The team will also “work with ecosystem apps” to enable liquidity providers to “smoothly transition” to providing liquidity for the new coin, and the current base bridge that issues USDbC will continue to operate normally for the foreseeable future.

The Circle team has not announced a specific date for the official unveiling of the coin. Allaire has only stated that it will occur “next week.

The day after its launch, Base Network acquired over 136,000 active users on August 10th. Base announced on August 25 that it would share its revenue and participate in the governance of the forthcoming Superchain,” composed of Base, Optimism, and other networks.