Circle Launches Gateway to Unify Transfers of $USDC Between Blockchains
On August 19, Circle introduced the Gateway, a solution that promises to simplify the use of USDC for companies and institutions operating across multiple blockchains.
Today, liquidity managers face a significant obstacle: the need to manually split and reallocate funds across various networks.
The Gateway solves this problem by offering a unified balance of USDC, immediately accessible on Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, and Unichain — with future support for new chains, including Arc, the enterprise blockchain that Circle plans to launch by 2025.
The architecture of the Gateway combines smart contracts with an off-chain attestation layer, ensuring fast and secure transfers without users losing control over their deposits.
Each transaction requires both the user's signature and the Gateway's validation. Additionally, there is a “trustless” recovery system that allows funds to be recovered within seven days if the API is down.
The target audience includes payment processors, exchanges, custodians, wallet providers, and DeFi traders who need more efficient stablecoin operations. Instead of maintaining fragmented liquidity on each network, only a single deposit is needed to move USDC instantly across any of them.
This initiative is part of a series of advancements by #Circle in 2025. In April, the company launched the Refund Protocol for transaction disputes without intermediaries.
The Arc, set to debut later this year, will have USDC as its native gas token, aimed at corporate payments and capital markets.
With these moves, Circle reinforces its strategy to consolidate USDC as the central piece of digital financial infrastructure, transforming it into a daily-use resource for businesses and institutional investors.