USDC USDC/USD is now on Polkadot.

What Happened: The stablecoin can be transferred to parachains in Polkadot through the XCM protocol using Circle Account and Circle APIs.

The announcement comes on the heels of Circle's announcement that the second-largest stablecoin by market cap will be available immediately for developers and users on the NEAR Blockchain Network.

The PolkadotUSDC is natively issued on Polkadot Asset Hub, a common parachain that is designed for issuing, managing, and transferring digital assets across the Polkadot ecosystem. The addition features trading, borrowing, and lending on parachains like Centrifuge, HydraDX, and Moonbeam.

Why It Matters: Polkadot is a network of many sovereign blockchains also known as parachains, which operate in parallel to each other for allowing faster transactions. They leverage Polkadot’s overall security and decentralization.

Polkadot USDC is a dollar-backed stablecoin that is always redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. USDC now supports 14 various blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Tron, Stellar, Solana, and others which is higher than rival stablecoin USDT which supports 11 networks.

In August 2023, citing a lack of users’ interest USDT USDT/USD issuer Tether stopped trading on three blockchains - Bitcoin Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash, and Kusama.

Avoid This: While transferring USDT USDT/USD from Polkadot Asset Hub to other parachains through XCM, users should transfer back to Polkadot Asset Hub through XCM before depositing into their Circle Account.

“Please do not attempt to deposit XCM-transferred USDC from a parachain other than Polkadot Asset Hub to your Circle Account, as it may not be recoverable and could result in a loss of funds," Circle warned.

Source : Benzinga / September 19, 2023