Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol
Native crosschain transfers
CCTP enables USDC to flow natively 1:1 between blockchains, unifying liquidity and simplifying user experience.
Not a developer? Send USDC crosschain directly with the USDC Bridge.
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Why use cross-chain transfer protocol?
The most secure way to transfer USDC crosschain
Maximum capital efficiency
Deliver secure 1:1 USDC crosschain transfers through a native burn-and-mint process, eliminating the need for liquidity pools or third-party fillers.
Trust minimized
Every crosschain transfer is validated by Circle, the same company you already trust for holding and transacting with USDC.
Open composability
Automate post-transfer transactions with Hooks for frictionless crosschain deposits, asset swaps, purchases, and treasury management.
Seamless extensibility
As a foundational building block, CCTP integrates easily into apps, bridges, exchanges, wallets, and other smart contracts.
Deliver the best crosschain experiences
CCTP: More powerful, more flexible
CCTP | CCTP V1 (Legacy)* | |
|---|---|---|
Features | ||
Standard Transfer |  | |
Fast Transfer | |  |
Hooks | | |
User experience | Advanced functionalities | Standard functionalities |
Backwards | | N/A |
Blockchains | Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Codex, Cronos, EDGE Chain, Ethereum, HyperEVM, Injective, Ink, Linea, Monad, Morph, OP Mainnet, Pharos, Plasma, Plume, Polygon PoS, Sei, Solana, Sonic, Starknet, Stellar, Unichain, World Chain, X Layer, and XDC | Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Noble, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Solana, Sui, and Unichain |
how it works
Programmatic burning & minting
Initiate transfer on source chain
A user accesses your app to transfer USDC and specifies the recipient wallet address on the destination chain. Your app facilitates a burn of USDC on the source chain.
Fetch signed attestation from Circle
Circle observes and attests to the burn event on the source chain. With Fast Transfer, the attestation is available immediately. Your app requests the attestation from Circle.
Complete transfer on destination chain
Your app uses the attestation to mint USDC for the recipient on the destination chain. 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
*Phase-out commencing on 10/31/26
**CCTP fees are subject to change. Circle will provide advanced notice.
Resources
FAQs
CCTP is crosschain infrastructure for multichain digital asset management.
CCTP supports native burn-and-mint transfers for assets like USDC and EURC. CCTP also offers lock-and-mint infrastructure to permissionlessly wrap and mint supported third-party assets across blockchains. Together, these two interoperability models help unify liquidity, simplify user experience, and give developers a streamlined way to build crosschain asset movement into their apps.
CCTP serves as permissionless infrastructure for developers to build on top of, or integrate into, their existing apps, bridges, exchanges, and wallets.
CCTP is intended for developers looking to integrate advanced crosschain functionalities for faster speeds and enhanced composability.
Lock-and-mint bridges are applications that lock a user's native USDC within a smart contract on a source chain and then mint a wrapped or bridged form of USDC on a destination chain. This process incurs additional trust assumptions and can result in poor UX due to the fragmentation of liquidity.
In contrast, CCTP enables USDC to move securely 1:1 between blockchains via a native burn-and-mint process. The result is greater capital efficiency and unified liquidity with no creation of bridged forms of USDC.
As a low-level primitive, CCTP can be embedded within existing bridge apps to replace their lock-and-mint functionality.
Liquidity pool bridges are applications that hold large pools of USDC on a source chain and a destination chain in order to facilitate crosschain swaps for end users. This process incurs additional trust assumptions and fees associated with the liquidity tied up on each chain.
In contrast, CCTP enables USDC to move securely 1:1 between blockchains via a native burn-and-mint process. The result is greater capital efficiency and unified liquidity without the need for large pools of USDC tokens.
As a low-level primitive, CCTP can be embedded within existing bridge apps to replace their liquidity pool functionality. Alternatively, CCTP could be used by the bridge provider to programmatically rebalance their liquidity pools behind the scenes and reduce operational costs.
No, CCTP is permissionless, which means any developer can integrate via our docs and GitHub repo.
For CCTP transfers, there would be a gas fee on the source blockchain and a gas fee on the destination blockchain. The app that integrates with either version would be responsible for determining how gas fees are handled and/or passed on to the end user.
An additional fee may be collected when the stablecoin is minted on the destination chain, based on the amount minted, or if automated transaction forwarding is requested. Refer to the associated fees page in our docs for more information.
No, the canonical CCTP operates with a distinct set of V2 smart contracts and APIs, and has formed its own distinct network of supported blockchains as it is not backwards compatible with CCTP V1 (Legacy) smart contracts.
Note: CCTP V1 (Legacy)’s phase-out commences on 10/31/26.
Yes, they are different. Circle CCTP is infrastructure that enables native USDC transfers across supported blockchains through a burn-and-mint mechanism. Circle launched CCTP in 2023 for developers and businesses to integrate into apps, wallets, bridges, and other services across the multichain ecosystem.
The 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.