USDC to Come Natively to Arbitrum

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Thu Jun 01 2023

(Circle)[https://www.circle.com/en/usdc] is launching USDC natively on Arbitrum on June 8, 2023! Keep reading to learn more about this launch and how to migrate liquidity from “bridged USDC” to native USDC.

Native to Arbitrum

USDC issued by Circle will be native to Arbitrum. This will be the official version of USDC that is recognized within the Arbitrum ecosystem, and will ultimately replace the currently circulating bridged version of USDC that comes from Ethereum.

Benefits of Native USDC

Fully reserved and always redeemable 1:1 for US dollars
Enables institutional on/off-ramps via Circle and other partners
Upcoming support by CCTP to eliminate bridge withdrawal delays
Upgradeable smart contract for future enhancements by Circle

What You Need to Know

Ahead of the launch of native USDC on June 8th, Arbitrum will be renaming the Ethereum-bridged version of USDC on block explorers as “USDC.e”. There will also be outreach to ecosystem apps to make the same change in their app UI and documentation.

Bridged USDC from Ethereum

Token Name: Bridged USDC
Token Symbol: USDC.e
Token Address: 0xff970a61a04b1ca14834a43f5de4533ebddb5cc8

Native USDC issued by Circle

Token Name: USD Coin
Token Symbol: USDC
Token Address: 0xaf88d065e77c8cC2239327C5EDb3A432268e5831

Liquidity Migration

Arbitrum will be working with ecosystem apps to provide a smooth transition of liquidity from bridged USDC to native USDC over time. There will be no immediate changes to the Arbitrum Bridge, and it will continue to operate normally for bridging USDC to and from Ethereum.

Future Plans

Circle expects to bring Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (#CCTP) to Arbitrum after the launch of native USDC. Upon integration into the Arbitrum Bridge, this will enable USDC to move natively to-and-from Ethereum (and other supported chains) in minutes — no more withdrawal delays.

Stay Tuned for June 8th!

We’re very excited about what native USDC means for the Arbitrum ecosystem! Please reach out on the Arbitrum Discord and Circle Discord if you have any questions. Stay tuned!