Circle has launched USDC Bridge, a new official tool for moving native USDC across supported blockchains at a 1:1 ratio. The interface is operated by Circle and is built to let users transfer USDC between EVM networks without relying on wrapped tokens, liquidity pools, or manual route selection. In a post from the official USDC account on X, the company described the product as a direct way to move USDC cross-chain, with upfront fee display, live transfer tracking, and automatic destination-chain gas handling. The app is now live at bridge.usdc.com.
CCTP Handles the Burn-and-Mint Flow
The bridge is powered by Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, or CCTP, a permissionless onchain system first released in 2023. CCTP V2 is now the current standard and adds faster finality as well as support for automated actions after transfer completion, including swaps and deposits.
The transfer flow has three steps. A user connects a wallet and starts a transfer on the source chain, where the selected amount of USDC is burned. Circle then issues a signed attestation confirming that burn. On the destination chain, the same amount of native USDC is minted and sent to the recipient address. Because Circle controls the mint-and-burn process as the issuer of USDC, the protocol does not depend on third-party liquidity providers or outside validators to complete the transfer. That removes part of the trust model users often accept with independent bridge services.
No Protocol Fee for Standard Transfers
Circle says standard transfers do not carry a protocol fee, so users mainly pay onchain gas costs. Fast transfers, which use Circle’s attestation service for near-instant finality, can come with higher gas expenses. In some cases, a small minting fee may apply on the destination chain, with the full breakdown listed in Circle’s developer documentation.
Launch Support Starts With EVM Chains
At launch, USDC Bridge supports a group of EVM-compatible networks: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, Sei, and Monad. Non-EVM chains are not included in the first release, and the article specifically notes that Solana is excluded. Circle said the list of supported chains will expand over time, with the latest availability posted on the bridge website.
Early Activity Reaches About $602.5 Million in One Day
Initial usage was heavy. Data shown on the bridge dashboard recorded roughly $602.5 million in transfers during a single 24-hour window shortly after launch. Circle also said CCTP has processed more than $140 billion in cumulative volume across more than 20 chains since the protocol first went live.
The company is also moving older infrastructure off the stack. CCTP V1, referred to as Legacy CCTP, will begin phasing out on July 31, 2026. Developers and applications still using V1 will need to migrate to V2 to remain compatible with Circle’s attestation service and the broader CCTP system. While USDC Bridge is aimed at individual users, CCTP itself remains a lower-level building block that can be integrated by wallets, decentralized applications, exchanges, and other bridge protocols for treasury rebalancing, trading flows, and DeFi activity.
Circle is positioning the product as a way to consolidate liquidity that has long been split across chain-specific wrapped versions of USDC. By keeping transfers native, each unit of USDC on supported chains remains directly redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars through Circle. The article also notes that standard crypto risks still apply, including gas fee exposure, smart contract risk, and network congestion. USDC is not protected by FDIC insurance or similar deposit coverage.