Celo Foundation announced that the USD Coin issued by Circle will be natively launched on the Celo blockchain network. The inclusion of USDC in the blockchain network is expected to increase Celo’s use cases for real-world assets and enhance USDC’s services related to fiat currencies. USDC will join Celo’s native token CELO while transitioning from the Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible Layer-1 network to the Ethereum Layer-2 protocol.
USDC Process in the Celo Ecosystem
The Celo community will vote on an upcoming proposal regarding the use of USDC to pay transaction fees within the ecosystem. Mento Lab is already planning to launch other stablecoin projects on Celo, such as cEuro, cREAL, and eXOF, alongside the existing cUSD stablecoin.
Celo positions itself as part of the regenerative finance movement, taking carbon-neutral and mobile-first steps. Mobile technology is emphasized to improve user experience in developing economies. In September, the Opera web platform launched the MiniPay wallet on Celo for African users. Circle’s Senior Business Development Manager Shamus Noonan stated:
“This partnership will help extend access to USDC and benefit from Celo’s mobile-first user base in regions where blockchain technology adoption is highest.”
Significant Steps from the Circle Team
Celo Foundation stated that the integration of USDC will provide corporate and enterprise users with access to Circle Mint on/off-ramp, which will enable more activity on Celo. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin project with a market value of $26.5 billion, following Tether with a market value of $96.1 billion. The company reported that it applied for an initial public offering in the United States in mid-January.
Circle continues to expand its global reach. In December, it was conditionally registered as a crypto asset service provider in France. A month earlier, it partnered with Japanese financial services firm SBI to introduce USDC in the country. Since 2020, it has partnered with global payment processor Visa and expanded the collaboration in September by using USDC issued on Ethereum and Solana.
