USD Coin

Bridged USDC (USDC.e) is an unofficial version of USDC issued by a third party. It is usually created when no native USDC has been issued on a network, but will continue to exist even if native USDC becomes available.

Bridged USDC came to Optimism several years after the network launched. USDC.e is issued by the official Optimism Bridge when transferring USDC from Ethereum, while native USDC is issued using a CCTP-enabled bridge.

Bridged USDC (USDC.e) derives its dollar value through the collateral provided to the bridging protocol, in the form of cryptocurrency tokens. In most cases, native USDC is deposited on one network and bridged USDC is issued on another in equal quantity.

Bridged USDC can often be converted back to native USDC, but can not be converted directly for US dollars through Circle or transferred across chains using the CCTP. Only native USDC has these properties.

No, this token is a copy of USDC issued by a third party. It is designed to substitute the use of USDC but does not have the same utility. Native USDC is available on Optimism under the contract address 0x0b2c639c533813f4aa9d7837caf62653d097ff85.

As it is an ERC-20 token, you can use bridged USDC (USDC.e) for trading cryptocurrency. Many bridged USDC variants are collateralized by native USDC, so it is common to exchange them for other tokens. You will find that bridged USDC will not be accepted by smart contracts that only accept native USDC, and you will not be able to use bridged USDC tokens on Circle’s services.

In general, you cannot redeem bridged USDC (USDC.e) for dollars. Instead, you must first swap your bridged USDC tokens for native USDC using an exchange like Matcha. Then you will need to use a qualified exchange such as Coinbase to exchange native USDC for US dollars. Institutional customers including wallets, exchanges and other businesses can redeem USDC via Circle Mint.