Circle’s USD Coin will launch natively on the Celo blockchain, the Celo Foundation has announced. Minting USDC on the blockchain will boost Celo’s use cases for real-world assets and enhance USDC’s convertibility into fiat currencies.
USDC will join Celo’s native proof-of-stake governance token, CELO, as the blockchain transitions from an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer-1 chain to an Ethereum layer-2 protocol. The Celo community will vote in an upcoming proposal on making USDC the gas currency for the ecosystem.
Mento Lab already issues the cUSD stablecoin on Celo, as well as other stablecoins such as the cEuro, cREAL (pegged to the Brazilian real) and eXOF (pegged to the West African CFA franc).
Celo positions itself as part of the regenerative finance movement and is carbon-neutral and mobile-first. It emphasizes mobile technology to improve the user experience in emerging economies. The Opera web platform launched its MiniPay wallet on Celo in September for African users with mobile phones.
Circle has been expanding its global reach. It was granted conditional registration as a virtual assets service provider in France in December. A month earlier, it partnered with Japanese financial services firm SBI to introduce USDC in that country. It has partnered with global payments processor Visa since 2020 and expanded cooperation using USDC issued on Ethereum and Solana in September.
