In a latest development, Circle announced that its native stablecoin USDC has gone live on the Layer-1 Aptos mainnet and accessible to all developers and users. With the new development, developers and users would not need bridging when performing a transaction.
This integration makes it easy for financial institutions to access USDC liquidity and benefit from Aptos’s fast and secure network.
Aptos: Scalable Blockchain Fueling DeFi Growth
Aptos is a Move-based layer-1 blockchain designed for secure, scalable, and upgradeable Web3 infrastructure. With its DeFi ecosystem growing 10X in 2024, Aptos provides developers with the tools to create payment solutions and DeFi applications for widespread adoption.
With USDC now available, Aptos developers can use the world’s largest regulated dollar stablecoin to build the future of finance. Aptos supports apps for various uses, including DeFi, peer-to-peer payments, cross-border remittances, global commerce, RWAs, gaming, and more.
Native vs Bridged
The Native USDC is officially issued by Circle and is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. Aptos previously used a bridged version of USD Coin called lzUSDC, which was not issued by Circle but bridged from Ethereum through AptosBridge on LayerZero.
Bridge providers like Stargate, built on LayerZero, played a key role in the growth of lzUSDC on Aptos, which influenced Circle’s decision to bring native USDC to the Aptos ecosystem. The Aptos team and bridge providers will be working with ecosystem participants to help facilitate the migration from lzUSDC to native USDC over time.
With Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) on Aptos, interoperability providers like Wormhole will enable developers and users to transfer USDC natively between blockchains. Circle also noted that USDC on Aptos will be supported on Coinbase in the near future.
