Understanding the Power of Circle Wallets API

The Circle Wallets API enables internet businesses and blockchain applications to embed digital wallets and process digital dollar stablecoin payments in a simple and hassle-free manner. 

Discover how the Circle Wallets API provides a US dollar digital wallet infrastructure without the need for traditional banking relationships.

Circle Wallets API: Upgrade Your Dollars to the Internet 

The Circle Wallets API solves the complex challenges that businesses and applications face when developing native digital wallets by offering an automated solution to store, send, and receive digital dollar stablecoins across customer and business accounts. 

With the Circle Wallets API, you can: 

• Embed US dollar-denominated digital wallets into your platform or application without dealing with the need for legacy bank account structures
• Manage digital dollar wallets for your customers including seamless transfer of funds, across hosted wallets or via on-chain USDC connectivity
• Accept USD Coin (USDC) payments at a low cost and with no exposure to reversals

Circle has extensive experience providing payment processing solutions to internet businesses and blockchain applications globally, supporting over 10 million digital wallet customers and processing hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions in over 150 countries.

Benefits of the Circle Wallets API for Businesses

To better understand the value of Circle’s Wallets API, it’s important to analyze the traditional “money technology” that consumers use every day. 

Any app or service that includes a “wallet” feature, such as Uber, Airbnb, and Starbucks, typically includes a money tech stack that requires a traditional banking relationship, an FBO bank account with commingled user funds, and some sort of payments processing service for the transfer of funds. 

“Business Account APIs give you a way to automate the conversions of funds that occur between dollars and USDC. Businesses can then manage a pool of liquidity in a wallet account that they control programmatically with the Wallets API. All of that custody, liquidity, infrastructure, and more is done with the Wallets API.”
—Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO

No matter the business model, any product or service that supports digital dollars can benefit from stablecoin wallet infrastructure. The Circle Wallets API provides the necessary tech stack so that businesses can focus on building killer products and cease worrying about scaling, digital asset custody, and security.

Wallets API Use Cases

One of the best features of the Wallets API is its inherent flexibility, adding value to a variety of business models based on the use case.

A blockchain gaming company, for example, could utilize the Circle Wallets API across its portfolio of games. Using the API, the game developer could collect payments across the globe that would settle in USDC while also providing accounts to thousands of players so that they could purchase digital goods within the games. The Wallets API gives businesses a way to instantiate individual sub accounts for all customers. 

Embed Digital Dollars Into Products/Services

The Wallets API integrates digital dollars into customer accounts, opening the door for the seamless transfer of funds across hosted wallets or through on-chain USDC connectivity. Businesses can use the Wallets API to facilitate transfers among its global customer base without the complexity of traditional banking. 

Accept and Make Crypto Payments Globally 

Integration of the Circle Wallets API allows for near-instantaneous settlements minus the middleman banks by leveraging USDC. Using the flexible customization features of the API, businesses can construct their own fund flows and funds segmentation in order to support end customer and internal business needs. 

Automate Corporate Treasury 

Businesses can easily create multiple sub account wallets to optimize business workflows for fast and transparent access by different stakeholders, divisions, or product lines. Companies will have clear, up-to-date insights into user accounts via real-time notifications, reporting, and transaction history, while also enjoying the benefits of global transfers.

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Circle Wallets API: How to Send and Receive Funds

Setting up the Circle Wallet API has deliberately been made as easy as possible. Below, you will find the steps you need to take to send funds externally and to receive external funds via the Wallets API. 

Send Funds Externally

1. Get an API Key

Obtain an API key for the sandbox environment by setting up an account and generating a new key in “settings”

2. Fund Your Wallet

Ensure your wallet is properly funded for testing

3. Send Funds

• To send funds externally, you need to start by choosing the hosted wallet you will send from (source) and the blockchain address to send to (destination)
• The sandbox environment is connected to the Ethereum Ropsten testing network, so the destination blockchain address has to be a valid Ropsten address
• Make sure to specify the currency and chain you want to utilize

4. Check the Status of the Transfer

Use the get transfer endpoint feature to retrieve details about the status of the transaction

Receive External Funds

1. Get an API Key

Obtain an API key for the sandbox environment by setting up an account and generating a new key in settings

2. Create a New Wallet

You can create new hosted wallets using the create wallet endpoint

3. Create a Deposit Address

You can create a new deposit address using the generate new address endpoint
Make sure to specify the currency and chain you want to utilize

4. Receive the Funds

• The sandbox environment is connected to the Ethereum Ropsten testing network, so you can send USDC from a Ropsten wallet in order to fund your Circle hosted wallet
• You can obtain some USDC on Ropsten for testing; you can get some by using a USDC faucet
• Go to usdcfaucet.com and make sure you choose the Ropsten button. Paste the address you generated above (be very careful to not miss any characters) and hit Submit

5. Check the Status of the Transfer

You can use the retrieve transfers endpoint to find transfers that are destined to the wallet you created earlier

For more details on how to send and receive external funds using the Wallets API, click here.

To transform and upgrade your digital dollar wallet infrastructure, sign up for a Circle Business Account today.