Circle has launched USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, natively on Polkadot, a “Layer 0” network started by Ethereum co-founder, Gavin Wood.
Circle has begun issuing USDC via the Polkadot Asset Hub, making it accessible to all Polkadot Layer 1s, also known as parachains. Polkadot said the integration will bolster liquidity and enable greater institutional participation within its ecosystem.
“Native USDC will help foster a more sophisticated and mature DeFi ecosystem,” said Aaron Evans, director of the Moonbeam Foundation. “The Moonbeam Foundation could not be more excited to support the launch and help this natively-minted stablecoin become a key resource for the many dApps on the Moonbeam parachain.”
Polkadot has fallen from prominence since conducting its hyped parachain auctions in November 2021.
Polkadot provides shared security in the form of its staking layer supporting up to 100 Layer parachains. Parachain slots are allocated to projects on a leased basis, with teams competing to raise Polkadot’s native DOT tokens from their communities to post as collateral to bid for a slot.
However, DOT last changed hands for $4.15, a 92.5% drop from its November 2021 all-time high.
Polkadot said that several parachain projects have already announced integrations for USDC.
Centrifuge, a protocol for tokenizing and financing real-world assets, has made USDC the native currency for its liquidity pools. Centrifuge users can now finance assets using either USDC or DAI.
“We are excited to see USDC natively on Polkadot,” said Lucas Vogelsang, co-founder of Centrifuge. “It is an important step for DeFi and an even bigger one for the Real World Assets ecosystem that Centrifuge is building.”
Users can also provide USDC to HydraDX, an omnipool-based decentralized exchange, or lend the stablecoin on Interlay.
Rapid Expansion
USDC’s Polkadot launch comes roughly one month after Circle announced plans to deploy the stablecoin on six new chains by the end of the year.
Circle quickly followed up with deployments on leading Ethereum Layer 2s Base and Optimism, with plans for USDC to launch on Arbitrum, Near, and Cosmos as well.
The moves follow a long-term decline in the market cap of USD, slumping by more than half from $56B in mid-2022 to $26B today.
Source: https://thedefiant.io/native-usdc-rolls-out-across-polkadot-ecosystem