USDC Is Coming to Solana Blockchain in Potential Boost for Non-Ethereum DeFi

The Coinbase- and Circle-backed CENTRE Consortium announced support for its USDC stablecoin on the Solana blockchain Wednesday, marking the dollar-backed asset’s fourth blockchain integration, after Ethereum, Algorand and Stellar, announced barely a week ago. 

Compared to Ethereum’s approximate rate of 15 transactions per second (TPS), Solana offers over 50,000 TPS, which Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CoinDesk helps USDC function “at scale and in a highly performant condition.” 

USDC was launched with the goal to create technical and regulatory standards supervised by governments and regulators for a dollar-pegged money format and protocol, Allaire told CoinDesk. The stablecoin is “just now moving into the growth phase,” he added. 

USDC and Tether, the two largest stablecoins by market capitalization, have been rapidly expanding across new blockchains throughout 2020 as both stablecoins aggressively pursue cross-chain growth strategies. This year, five new protocols have announced support for one or both of the leading stablecoins. 

DeFi competitor?

In early September, Tether also announced its planned integration with the “ultra high-speed” Solana blockchain. 

Use cases for stablecoins now extend beyond simple trading and funds transfers, Allaire explained. Operating on multiple protocols is key for USDC to meet the needs of novel stablecoin use cases created by a burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, he explained.

Concurrent with its support on Solana, USDC announced a partnership with FTX; Serum, the exchange’s decentralized trading platform built on Solana; and Alameda research, the exchange’s sister company. 

As to whether USDC will continue to expand to other blockchains, Allaire told Coindesk “absolutely”, noting that there are “many credible blockchains” that could be considered in the future for USDC support.