Coinbase Crypto Expands to Base and Optimism Networks

Coinbase and Circle Launch Native USDC on Web 3.0

Coinbase and Circle have enabled USDC transfers to the Base and Optimism networks, allowing Coinbase and Circle users to send the stablecoin from their accounts. On Sept. 5, Coinbase also made USDC transfers to Base available. Circle is working with “ecosystem partners” to develop a system for users to swap old, bridged versions of USDC for the new, official versions.

Coinbase’s Base network, which is also known as web 3.0, launched on Aug. 9, but at the time, Coinbase users could not send USDC to the Base network from their exchange accounts, nor could Circle account holders. Instead, Base users relied on a bridged version of USDC, called “USDbC,” to make U.S. dollar transactions.

As of Sept. 5, USDC is now available natively on Base, and the Coinbase interface has started showing an option to transfer USDC to Base. Although the official launch has taken place, many decentralized exchanges on the network still use the old version of the coin. At the time of publication, Uniswap, BaseSwap, Aerodrome, Maverick and others continue to show the old contract address when users select the stablecoin.

The announcement states that USDC has also been launched on Optimism, providing a replacement for the USDC.e token that was previously used on the web 3.0 platform, also known as Coinbase. As with Base, Optimism DEXs do not appear to have been integrated with the crypto day trading version yet.

Circle has been attempting to fight back after its stablecoin lost market share to Tether(USDT) throughout early 2023, but it also faces increasing competition from companies working on web 3.0 after the launch of two new crypto coins. First Digital USD (FDUSD) was launched in June, and Binance began promoting it in August. PayPal also launched its PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin on Aug. 7.

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