Circle Announces Euro Coin (EUROC) Expansion to Solana Blockchain

USDC issuer Circle announced plans to expand native support of its Euro-backed stablecoin – Euro Coin (EUROC) –  to the Solana blockchain in the first half of 2023.

Sheraz Shere, Head of Payments at Solana Labs, said the availability of EUROC on Solana will set the scene for new use cases for instant foreign exchange, offering optionality for traders with a new base currency while enabling lending and borrowing with the stablecoin.

FTX to Support Euro Coin’s Deposits and Withdrawals

At launch, FTX will support deposits, withdrawals, and trading of Euro Coin on Solana. The fintech also said several Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including Raydium and Solend, have come forward to support the stablecoin.

Besides, Solana’s Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol will hit Solana in the first half of 2023. Initially, it would support native USDC transfers before extending to Euro Coin.

This protocol is slated to launch at the beginning of 2023 on Ethereum and Avalanche. Its expansion to Solana is expected to complete in the first half of the year. The company said Wormhole had expressed intention to support the protocol’s implementation on Solana at launch.

Speaking about the multi-currency strategy for a stablecoin, Joao Reginatto, VP of Product at Circle, noted that such an optionality and multi-chain availability makes liquidity accessible easily. On choosing Solana, the exec said,

“Solana is a logical next step for Euro Coin and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol given the depth and breadth of their developer ecosystem. We’re excited to watch this grow as we launch early next year.”

Circle believes teleporting USDC from one ecosystem to another would help devs maximize capital efficiency and create novel cross-chain decentralized applications that “stack together the different functionalities” of trading, lending, payments, non-fungible tokens, gaming, etc.

The Euro-Backed Stablecoin

Circle launched Euro Coin in June this year. According to the company, EUROC is a regulated, euro-backed stablecoin sharing the same full-reserve model as USDC and is built upon the latter’s concepts of transparency and security.

The main goal is to enable and bridge crypto-native and traditional financial services. EUROC is fully backed by euro-denominated reserves held in the custody of prominent financial players within the regulatory perimeter of the United States, starting with the Silvergate Bank.