Circle is pleased to announce that USDC and CCTP V2 are now live on Linea, reportedly making it the “first” blockchain to upgrade from Bridged USDC Standard to native USDC.
According to stablecoin issuer Circle, this latest milestone enhances liquidity, security, and capital efficiency for developers and users across the Linea ecosystem.
As noted in a blog post by Circle, key benefits include:
- Upgrade to native: Bridged USDC has been upgraded in-place to native USDC. With its contract address unchanged, existing integrations remain intact, requiring no action from developers or users.
- Institutional on/off-ramps: Native USDC is regulated1, fully reserved, and redeemable 1:1 for USD with Circle Mint,2 providing a trusted and scalable foundation for trading, payments, and financial services.
- Cross-chain interoperability: CCTP V2 enables faster-than-finality USDC transfers across supported blockchains, reducing Linea transfer times to seconds, with the option to automate post-transfer actions via Hooks.
As mentioned in the update shared by Circle, MetaMask is offering USDC rewards on “purchases made with their MetaMask Card.”
As explained in a blog post by Circle, this reportedly makes it easier to “spend USDC while earning cashback, enhancing its utility for everyday transactions.”
The announcement also mentioned that Fintechs, exchanges, institutional traders, and developers can leverage USDC on Linea for “a range of use cases.” as outlined below:
- Payments and ecommerce: Power apps for global payments, NFT marketplaces, and onchain gaming with the world’s largest regulated digital dollar, just like MetaMask.
- Trading and financial services: Enable digital asset trading, swaps, and more with USDC, just like Aave.
- Cross-chain transfers: Facilitate secure USDC movement across blockchains for users, just like Socket.
Qualified businesses can access on/off-ramps to “convert local fiat currency to USDC on Linea by applying for a Circle Mint account.”
Developers can access documentation to begin building with USDC, CCTP V2, Programmable Wallets in order to create various onchain apps.
SMBs and individuals can access USDC on/off-ramps “through Circle’s partner network.”