Coinbase adds support for USDC on Stellar
The addition could reduce transaction costs and allow for faster transactions.
Coinbase has added support for USD Coin (USDC) on Stellar, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) said on June 23.
That announcement indicates that Coinbase will allow both withdrawals and deposits of Circle’s stablecoin via the Stellar network.
SDF said that Coinbase’s support for USDC on Stellar will allow for faster and less expensive transactions. Specifically, it said that USDC on Stellar can provide “near-zero” transaction costs and can finalize transactions within as little as five seconds.
SDF further said that the addition will introduce a “significant [on/off] ramp” for USDC alongside Stellar’s existing wallets, exchanges, and fintech businesses.
Coinbase Assets acknowledged the feature in its own tweet. There, the company wrote that USDC on Stellar will make it “easier than ever to store and move money.”
USDC exists on several blockchains
Circle originally launched USDC on Stellar in February 2021. The USDC stablecoin also exists as a native asset on Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Avalanche, Hedera, Algorand, and Flow, and as a bridged asset on other chains.
Most recently, Circle announced it would create a native version of USDC for the Arbitrum blockchain, where it already exists as a bridged asset.
Unlike some of those earlier USDC launches, today’s news does not mean that USDC will exist on a new chain. Rather, it means that a major exchange — Coinbase — is beginning to use USDC on a blockchain where it already exists.