Circle Announces Expansion of Euro Coin (EUROC) to Solana Blockchain

USDC issuer Circle announced plans to extend native support for 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 stage for new use cases for instant foreign exchange, offering options for traders with a new base currency while enabling stablecoin lending and borrowing.

FTX to support Euro Coin’s deposits and withdrawals

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

Also, 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 expanding to Euro Coin.

This protocol is due to launch in early 2023 on Ethereum and Avalanche. The expansion to Solana is expected to be completed during the first half of the year. The company said Wormhole had expressed its intention to support the implementation of the protocol on Solana at launch.

Speaking about the multi-currency strategy for a stablecoin, Joao Reginatto, VP of Product at Circle, noted that such choice and multi-chain availability makes liquidity readily available. On choosing Solana, the manager said,

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

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

Euro-backed Stablecoin

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

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