Overview
- Circle activated native USDC issuance and its Cross‑Chain Transfer Protocol on X Layer on Aug. 7, 2026, assigning the network domain identifier 37 in CCTP routing.
- CCTP uses a permissionless burn-and-mint process that burns USDC on the origin chain and mints an equal amount natively on the destination chain, avoiding wrapped tokens and third‑party liquidity pools.
- Qualified businesses can request issuance and redemption on X Layer through Circle Mint, but access requires Circle’s onboarding, eligibility checks and compliance controls.
- OKX’s X Layer will keep supporting bridged USDC during a gradual migration, even as Circle and ecosystem participants encourage developers and users to shift to native USDC over time.
- Circle said the change aims to boost DeFi, payments, institutional settlement and machine-driven (AI) payments on X Layer and adds to Circle’s broader infrastructure push that includes regulatory moves and an Arc mainnet launch planned for September.