Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
Native crosschain interoperability
CCTP moves native USDC and EURC between blockchains — unifying liquidity and simplifying multichain digital asset management.
Not a developer? Send USDC crosschain directly with the USDC Bridge.
Trusted By The Industry
Why use CCTP?
Transfer digital assets across chains
Transfer Circle-issued assets natively
Move USDC and EURC across supported chains through native burn-and-mint.
Compose multi-step crosschain flows
Automate post-transfer transactions with Hooks for frictionless crosschain deposits, swaps, payments, and treasury workflows.
Minimize trust with transfers secured by Circle
CCTP avoids introducing third-party bridge or messaging providers, so trust stays with Circle for the transfer and the issuer of the supported asset.
Operate with production-grade controls
Use enterprise controls, including rate limits, circuit breakers, blocklists, governance, permissions, and lifecycle management.
Reach more users and liquidity with one interoperability layer
how it works
One integration for multi-asset, multi-chain transfers
Initiate transfer on source chain
A user accesses your app to transfer an asset crosschain and specifies the recipient wallet address on the destination chain. Your app initiates a burn of the Circle-issued asset on the source chain.
Fetch signed attestation from the CCTP API
The CCTP API observes and attests to the source-chain event. With Fast Transfer, the attestation is available after soft finality for supported assets. Your app requests the attestation from the CCTP API.
Complete transfer on destination chain
Your app uses the attestation to mint the corresponding asset for the recipient on the destination chain. With Forwarding enabled, the attestation is submitted automatically. With Hooks, additional operations trigger automatically.
Flexible pricing to meet your needs
Standard Message Transfer
Standard USDC Transfer
Fast Message Transfer
Fast USDC Transfer
Hooks
View fee details in the docs
Resources
FAQs
CCTP is crosschain infrastructure for multichain digital asset management.
CCTP supports native burn-and-mint transfers for assets like USDC and EURC. This interoperability model helps unify liquidity, simplify user experience, and give developers a streamlined way to build crosschain asset movement into their apps.
CCTP V1 (Legacy) is the original version of CCTP, launched in 2023, to support USDC transfers across blockchains through Standard Transfer.
CCTP V1 (Legacy) will not receive new chain integrations or feature updates, and its phase-out will commence on October 31, 2026. Existing CCTP V1 (Legacy) integrators should use the CCTP Migration Guide, while new developers should start with the CCTP docs.
CCTP is designed for developers, issuers, blockchain ecosystems, and teams building apps, bridges, exchanges, wallets, payment products, DeFi protocols, and treasury infrastructure.
It is especially relevant for teams that want to deploy, manage, or extend assets across multiple blockchains without maintaining separate token contracts, bridge implementations, and custom integrations.
Liquidity pool bridges are applications that hold large pools of assets like USDC on a source chain and a destination chain in order to facilitate crosschain swaps for users. This process incurs additional trust assumptions and fees associated with the liquidity tied up on each chain.
In contrast, CCTP enables assets to move 1:1 between blockchains via a native burn-and-mint process or a lock-and-mint process. The result is that it can improve capital efficiency by reducing reliance on large liquidity pools.
As a permissionless utility, CCTP can be embedded within existing bridge apps to replace their liquidity pool functionality and reduce operational costs.
No. CCTP is permissionless, which means any developer can integrate CCTP. Read CCTP documentation to find out more.
Standard Transfer has no onchain fee from Circle. Developers should still account for source-chain and destination-chain gas fees, as apps are responsible for determining how those costs are handled or passed on to users. Fast Transfer provides faster-than-finality settlement with an onchain fee per transaction. Additional fees may apply if automated transaction forwarding to the destination chain is requested. Refer to the fees page in the CCTP docs for more information.
Yes, they are different. CCTP is permissionless infrastructure for multichain digital asset management, including native transfers of Circle-issued assets such as USDC and EURC. It is built for developers and blockchain ecosystems to integrate into apps, wallets, bridges, and other services.
USDC Bridge is a consumer-facing app built by Circle using CCTP. It gives users a direct way to move USDC across supported blockchains through a simple, transparent interface.
CCTP is a crosschain messaging infrastructure service provided by Circle Technology Services, LLC ("CTS"). CCTP is non-custodial; CTS does not hold, control, manage, or transfer user assets or act as a transfer agent, registrar, broker-dealer, investment adviser, or clearing agency. CCTP is not a financial, payment, or advisory service and has not been reviewed or approved by NYDFS or any other regulatory authority. Transfers are irreversible; CTS cannot recover assets sent to an incorrect address. CTS does not vet, endorse, or back third-party assets; such assets are subject solely to the applicable third-party terms and risks. Issuers are solely responsible for their services and compliance with applicable laws. Any fee estimates are non-binding previews; actual fees may differ. Assets are subject to a number of risks, including, but not limited to, price volatility and smart-contract, relay, and bridge vulnerabilities. Availability is subject to change. Developer terms apply.