Circle has officially launched its USDC stablecoin on X Layer, the Ethereum layer-2 network developed by cryptocurrency exchange OKX. This expansion extends the stablecoin's reach to an ecosystem connected to one of the world's largest digital asset trading platforms by volume, and gives developers building on X Layer access to a fully-backed, natively issued dollar token rather than a wrapped or bridged substitute.

In a Friday announcement, Circle confirmed that both native USDC and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) are now live on X Layer. The layer-2 scaling solution is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which allows developers to deploy Ethereum-based applications with minimal modifications. Native issuance means USDC on X Layer is directly redeemable for U.S. dollars through Circle, eliminating the counterparty and liquidity risks that can arise with third-party bridged versions of the token.

The integration of CCTP enables frictionless movement of USDC between X Layer and other supported blockchains. This is achieved through a burn-and-mint mechanism, where tokens are burned on the source chain and an equivalent amount is minted on the destination chain. The protocol is already live on networks including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, and Polygon, positioning X Layer within a growing interoperability standard. The rollout facilitates various decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, including payments, trading, lending, borrowing, and cross-chain transfers.

Additionally, Circle stated that eligible businesses can utilize Circle Mint to access USDC on- and off-ramps.

This deployment brings the world's second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization directly to the OKX ecosystem. USDC trails only Tether's USDT in market cap, and Circle has been steadily expanding the token's multi-chain footprint throughout 2024 across both established and emerging networks. According to CoinMarketCap data, OKX processed more than $975 million in spot trading volume over the past 24 hours, ranking as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally by that metric.