Circle Stablecoin USDC To Launch On Cosmos

Shortly after coming out of stealth, token protocol Noble has announced it has partnered with Circle to bring USD Coin (USDC) natively to the Cosmos ecosystem in Q2.

USDC is the second-largest stablecoins in the cryptocurrency ecosystem behind Tether, and is pivotal to many decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. It is often used as collateral for lending and borrowing to generate yield due to its ability to remain steadily pegged to the US dollar.

Although it recently went through a few hiccups following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate bank, the stablecoin has now regained its peg to the dollar.

Noble CEO Jelena Djuric told Blockworks in an interview that the Cosmos inter-blockchain communication protocol (IBC) ecosystem hasn’t yet gained a native fiat-backed stablecoin that is not only highly liquid but also fully collateralized on its network.

“That’s about to change with Noble’s first issuance partner, Circle,” she said. “They’re bringing a native USDC to Cosmos for the first time.” Noble, a token issuance protocol, will help facilitate USDC’s management and issuance.

Currently on Cosmos, the major stablecoins can only be accessed through bridge protocols such as Gravity and Axelar. Estimates suggest around 100 different bridged USDC assets currently exist across the Cosmos landscape.

Now that DeFi protocols can stick with just one single official stablecoin, Noble hopes this partnership will inject and and facilitate new liquidity in the ecosystem. Circle first flagged intent to issue USDC on Cosmos last September.

“It’s also for the users themselves to have a seamless process of accessing native assets in the ecosystem,” Djuric said. “At the end of the day, we’re seeking to rectify the challenges that users and app chains face when interacting with bridge assets.”

The decision to quickly onboard USDC onto Cosmos is also related to the fact that popular lending protocol dYdX will soon migrate from Ethereum onto the Cosmos IBC.

“We’re very much doing this in preparation for dYdX’s launch. We see this as a huge moment for the Cosmos and the app chain thesis because this is a project that has already got a lot of success on Ethereum,” Djuric said.