USD Coin (Arb1)

Bridged USDC 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 has been on Arbitrum since the network launched. It is issued by the official Arbitrum Bridge, which gives users the option to receive native USDC or USD Coin (Arb1) when depositing native USDC or Ether to the bridge on the Ethereum network.

Bridged USDC 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 Arbitrum under the contract address 0xaf88d065e77c8cc2239327c5edb3a432268e5831.

As it is an ERC-20 token, you can use bridged USDC 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 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.