USD Base Coin

Bridged USDC (USDbC) 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.

USDC was natively issued on Base soon after the network launched. USDbC was issued by the official Base Bridge when transferring USDC from Ethereum before native USDC was available. The Base Bridge now issues native USDC. Native USDC can also be bridged to Base using a CCTP-enabled bridge.

Bridged USDC (USDbC) 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 Base under the contract address 0x833589fcd6edb6e08f4c7c32d4f71b54bda02913.

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