Wormhole has integrated Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol , allowing USD Coin to be transferred between Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Optimism via Wormhole-based bridges, according to a Sept. 20 announcement.
The new feature is available to end-users via the Portal bridge, and developers can integrate it into their own apps using Wormhole Connect.The Wormhole team claimed that the new integration will reduce liquidity issues and user confusion. “On these new and emerging chains, multiple versions of these bridged USDC tokens can exist,” it stated, “which can lead to fragmented liquidity, poor pricing, and a confusing experience for users and developers alike.
When Circle first issued USDC, it was only available on Ethereum. If a user wanted to transfer USDC to another chain, they needed to use a bridge to lock up their native USDC on Ethereum and . However, multiple bridging protocols with various derivative versions of USDC could sometimes cause confusion among end-users.