Circle announces taking USDC on OP Mainnet

Circle has announced that it is taking its native USDC live on the OP Mainnet. The development is said to be a part of Stable September, probably hinting that the next month is going to reveal a lot about the stablecoins in the ecosystem. Indeed, the USDC has already taken the first step. A tentative date is yet to be announced; however, a major portion of how the native USDC on OP Mainnet will play out has been shared in the announcement.

For starters, USDC native to Circle will inch closer to replacing the liquidity that is supplied by Ethereum. Upcoming stable is likely to become the official form of the said stablecoin in the ecosystem. Needless to say, the one to replace the Ethereum liquidity will be the native form of the stablecoin. Circle expects liquidity to grow in the coming days. Meaning it could launch with certain restrictions in terms of liquidity. Thereby growing later at a pace that is yet to be defined.

This will offer two select benefits to Circle and Optimism’s community:

• It will allow institutional on/off-ramps
• USDC will be backed by the US Dollar in 1:1

The second benefit is pretty much what it generally offers. An expanded version of that point goes on to brief that the native USDC will be fully reserved, and users will have access to the feature of redeeming their holdings at any time of the day or night. Redemption will be in the US Dollar.

The USDC liquidity from Ethereum will be changed to USDC.e. This will be the new token symbol coming into effect from next month. Applications denoting USDC from Ethereum will be asked to make relevant changes. Hence, Ethereum’s USDC will change into USDC.e on every platform to make way for Circle’s USDC to become USDC as usual.

Changes in the token symbol will mostly pertain to documentation and user interface. It is up to Optimism to ensure that the liquidity transition is seamless for the community. Those having their liquidity held as USDC will see it smoothly transitioning to USDC.e Instructions for manual operations, if applicable, will be shared by Optimism. The OP Mainnet bridge will not have any immediate change per the development.

Circle has invited further questions and queries to its Discord channel. The development comes days after Circle shared the news that USDC is coming to six new blockchains. These included Cosmos, Base, Optimism, NEAR, Polkadot, and Polygon.

Polygon will take its own course by going live in October this year. Launching native USDC on OP Mainnet serves developers well by enabling them to build a foundation with digital dollars that is fully reserved and backed in 1:1. What works best is for businesses and users to gain more access to USDC for an experience that is safer, faster, and more efficient.