Circle Expands CCTP on Arc With Native EURC and cirBTC Transfers

• Circle has extended CCTP beyond USDC, allowing native EURC and cirBTC transfers via the selected Arc paths.
• The Gateway service will be USDC-only initially, although Circle has plans for EURC and cirBTC support for balance unification at a later date.

Circle is extending its interoperability suite via Arc beyond USDC, using native CCTP transfers for EURC and cirBTC. EURC now has connections with Arc, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, and World Chain, and cirBTC has connections with Arc and Ethereum. Circle initially introduced EURC support into CCTP via Ethereum and Base chains earlier this month. The CCTP utilizes the burn-and-mint process for Circle-issued assets, where the tokens are burned on the originating chain and then minted natively on the target chain.

EURC and cirBTC Have Different Routes to Interoperability

The latest expansion from Circle does not offer the same network reach to all assets. USDC is still the most widely adopted asset on the current interoperability stack called Arc. EURC now enjoys more extensive CCTP reach on five networks, which includes Arc. The route of cirBTC between Arc and Ethereum is comparatively shorter. Circle released cirBTC on Arc on September 21 as the Bitcoin-backed asset.

According to Circle, each cirBTC token is backed by one BTC token. Reserve information is available for on-chain validation by the company. Circle also facilitates USDC borrowings backed by Bitcoin on both Arc and Ethereum using cirBTC. Eligible Circle Mint institutions can utilize cirBTC as the collateral asset in lending markets. Morpho was the first lending protocol to be supported by Circle.

Limited Gateway vs. New Features at Arc

Currently, Gateway is creating a unified balance of USDC tokens on Arc and Ethereum networks. The company mentions that EURC and cirBTC Gateway features will be available soon, without any launch dates being mentioned. As a result, developers still cannot consider CCTP and Gateway as identical services for multiple assets. Forwarding Service performs destination chain transactions once the CCTP has successfully transferred an asset. It can eliminate the need for users to have destination chain gas tokens. Circle also made an update for CCTP in the beginning of the month with prepaid Fast Transfer fees. Arc routes get priority prices with CCTP, but fees depend on the asset and route used.

Arc Evolves Towards More Interoperable Multichain Network

It was introduced by Circle on September 16 with fees and validators for transactions done in USDC. The platform started with interoperability among more than 20 blockchain systems with the help of CCTP and Gateway. Some of the founding validators are BlackRock, Visa, MasterCard, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, and others. On September 22, Circle also launched StableFX to offer stablecoin foreign exchange settlement on Arc. This new expansion in CCTP is an additional step towards interoperable multichain infrastructure of Arc.

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