USDC stablecoin developer Circle will launch the “official” version of its token running natively on the Arbitrum network
The stablecoin issuer Circle announced plans to launch a new native version of its USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin on the Arbitrum blockchain network on June 8.
According to the press release, starting from June 8, USDC issued by Circle will be native to Arbitrum. This will be the official version of the stablecoin recognized within the Arbitrum ecosystem. The new version will ultimately replace the currently circulating bridged version of USDC that comes from Ethereum.
Ahead of the launch, Arbitrum will be renaming the Ethereum-bridged version of USDC on block explorers as “USDC.e”. Ecosystem apps would also make the same change in their app UI and documentation.
Furthermore, Arbitrum will be working with ecosystem apps to facilitate a smooth transition of liquidity from bridged USDC to native USDC over time. There will be no immediate changes to the Arbitrum Bridge, assures the company, and it will continue to operate normally for bridging USDC to and from Ethereum.
The expected benefits of a new token version include institutional on/off-ramps via Circle and other partners, support by CCTP to eliminate bridge withdrawal delays and an upgradeable smart contract for future enhancements by Circle.
Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) is a permissionless on-chain utility that can burn native USDC on a source chain and mint the same amount of native USDC on a destination chain. Developers who embed CCTP into their apps may provide users with the most capital-efficient way to transfer USDC across chains, designing flows that feel like one seamless transaction to the user.
Those future upgrades will deal with the integration of the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) into Arbitrum. The move will enable USDC to move natively to-and-from Ethereum (and other supported blockchains) without any withdrawal delays. Supposedly, these transfers will take a few minutes in the future.
Currently, CCTP is available on the mainnet for Ethereum and Avalanche, on the Goerli testnet for Ethereum and Fuji testnet for Avalanche. Throughout 2023, Solana and other chains’ compatibility is expected to be added.
