Wormhole Integrates USDC For Their Blockchains
Wormhole integrates Circle's CCTP, enabling USDC transfers between Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
Wormhole has successfully incorporated Circle's CCTP, enabling USDC transfers between Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Optimism through Wormhole-based bridges. This integration was officially announced on September 20.
The integration is accessible to end-users via the Portal bridge. Moreover, developers have the opportunity to incorporate this feature into their applications using Wormhole Connect. On emerging chains, there can be multiple versions of bridged USDC tokens. This multiplicity can result in fragmented liquidity, suboptimal pricing, and a perplexing experience for both users and developers.
Portal USDC bridge.
CCTP addresses these challenges by introducing a natively cross-chain USDC. This version of USDC can be burned and minted across connected chains. When Circle first introduced USDC, it was exclusively available on Ethereum. Transferring USDC to another chain required users to utilize a bridge, locking up their native USDC on Ethereum and minting a derivative version on the target chain.
In 2021, Circle expanded its stablecoin to Stellar, marking its second chain. Subsequently, it continued to add more chains, with the total number of compatible networks reaching 14 by September 20. However, transferring native USDC between these networks still involved a complex process, leading many users to prefer bridged versions of the coin.
On April 26, Circle unveiled CCTP, a combination of smart contracts and an API designed to simplify USDC transfers. With CCTP, users can burn USDC on one chain and have it re-minted on another without the need to deposit to a Circle partner account. Initially, CCTP supported transfers only between Ethereum and Avalanche. However, it has since expanded to include the Optimism and Arbitrum networks. Circle has plans to incorporate more networks in 2023.
The September 20 announcement highlighted the integration of CCTP into the Wormhole bridge interface. This move allows Wormhole users to transfer native USDC between CCTP-supported chains for the first time.
Wormhole Connect has integrated @circle’s #CCTP!
By integrating CCTP, Connect enables app builders to offer native $USDC cross-chain transfers to their users, integrating in as little as 3 lines of code! ???? pic.twitter.com/etX5GDV9xm — Wormhole???? (@wormholecrypto) September 20, 2023
Wormhole isn't the only bridge to support the features of CCTP. Wanchan offers a similar feature and other platforms like Celer, Hyperlane, LayerZero, and LI.FI have expressed intentions to integrate with CCTP in the near future.
