If you’ve ever sent digital dollars across different blockchains or used a crypto wallet, you might’ve come across two similar-looking tokens: USDC and USDC.e. At first glance, you might not even notice the difference.
Sure, they’re both pegged to the US dollar and used to send money, trade, save, or buy goods and services across dozens of apps, wallets, and blockchains. They’re also a great way to receive payments if you’re running a business.
But under the hood, they’re not the same. USDC.e is the most common form of “bridged” USDC — native USDC on Ethereum that’s been bridged (i.e., transferred) to another blockchain ecosystem. (Note: there are multiple types of bridged USDC with various designations, but USDC.e is the most common type of bridged USDC.) If you’re trying to understand the differences between USDC.e vs USDC, it’s important to consider the trust model, redemption process, and use case differences for each. Knowing the difference can help you avoid confusion, delays, or unexpected issues.
You probably have a few questions: What is the difference between USDC and USDC.e? Can I swap USDC.e to USDC? Is USDC.e redeemable for dollars? Is USDC.e safe to use? How do I know if I have USDC or USDC.e in my wallet? Is USDC.e backed by Circle? Let’s take a closer look.
¿Qué es USDC?
USDC is a digital dollar backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets and is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. Native USDC is issued by Circle1, a global financial technology company. USDC reserve assets are held in regulated financial institutions and attested to monthly by a Big Four accounting firm.
This backing is designed to give USDC its stability. One USDC is designed to be redeemable for one dollar. This should give you confidence when using it. And what can you use it for? You can use USDC for everything from peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to trading in decentralized finance (DeFi) — to buying and selling everything from a cup of coffee to a house.
As of June 30, 2025, Circle issues USDC natively on over 20 blockchains. To see a complete and up-to-date list of blockchains that support native USDC, click here. This flexibility allows you to use USDC across numerous blockchain protocols to buy, sell, or interact with DeFi protocols.
When USDC is minted (i.e., created), on a supported blockchain, it’s just regular USDC (not USDC.e). To make it crystal clear, you’ll often see USDC called native USDC. In wallets, native USDC may appear as “USD Coin” (an outdated name for USDC), while bridged versions might show as “USDC.e” or “Bridged USDC” (or other unstandardized naming formats that make reference to blockchain bridges like “Cronos Bridged USDC” or “Synapse Bridged USDC”). Don’t just trust the name; verify the token address by comparing it against the official list provided by Circle.
The “native USDC” designation just means that version of USDC was created directly by Circle on that supported blockchain. Using native USDC reduces risk and simplifies how your digital dollars are managed.
What Is USDC.e and how is it different from USDC?
USDC.e, the most common form of bridged USDC, allows users to move stablecoins across chains, but adds reliance on external parties. USDC.e is a version of USDC that’s been bridged from Ethereum to another blockchain ecosystem. Notably, USDC.e is not issued by Circle, but by third parties that allow you to move your digital dollars from one blockchain to another. These non-Circle entities are typically blockchain bridges or crosschain trading platforms that mint bridged USDC while locking native USDC in a smart contract on the original blockchain on your behalf.
This means you are trusting these third parties to honestly and securely hold the USDC on your behalf, which can introduce a new layer of counterparty risk. Bridged assets are useful, but they’re also more complex — and often less secure. According to Chainalysis, bridges accounted for the majority of crypto exploits in 2022.
Understanding bridged USDC with an example
That’s the technical explainer. Now, how about we run through an example. Picture this:
You have USDC on Ethereum but you really want to use it to make a purchase on Kadena, a separate blockchain. To do this, you can bridge your USDC from Ethereum to Kadena using a traditional third-party bridge, which results in you receiving a bridged version of USDC (in this case, USDC.e since your USDC is coming from Ethereum). In this example, a bridge would lock your USDC on Ethereum and mint an equivalent amount of bridged USDC on Kadena. Your USDC serves as collateral. And you should receive an equivalent amount of bridged USDC on Kadena. Should you desire, you can simply bridge your USDC back to Ethereum. Simple enough, right?
USDC.e and USDC work similarly to each other in many ways. In this example, the primary difference is that your original USDC is on Ethereum while a bridged copy of USDC.e is available to you on Kadena. While you can use these two versions of USDC interchangeably in many instances, important technical differences are hidden in plain sight — visible only if you know what to look for.
To help you better understand bridging, it’s worth looking at some other bridged assets and their place in the onchain digital currency ecosystem.
Other examples of bridged assets: USDC vs USDC.e, BTC vs wBTC, ETH vs wETH, and more
USDC.e is just one example of a bridged asset (which are also sometimes referred to as “wrapped assets”). There are bridged, or wrapped, versions of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and a host of other popular digital assets. You can find several bridged versions of BTC such as wrapped BTC (wBTC), Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC), and more. Basically, whenever you see a bridged or wrapped asset, you know that it’s been transferred to a different blockchain network than the network it originally was issued on.
Wrapped BTC, for example, is BTC that’s been made available on the Ethereum network. By being “wrapped” as an ERC-20 token (Ethereum’s native token standard), it becomes possible to use wBTC on Ethereum-based decentralized apps (dApps) and DeFi protocols. It opens up new opportunities and options.
But there’s a common saying: “wrapped bitcoin isn’t bitcoin.” And it’s popular for good reason. Wrapped BTC mimics the original asset’s value, but you’re trusting someone else to keep the real thing safe. Problems with the wrapped version could cause delays — or worse.
You could look at USDC.e and wrapped ETH/BTC in much the same way: They open up options to interact on different blockchain protocols but add in a layer of complexity that has some tradeoffs. Let’s compare wrapped assets with their native counterparts and discuss some of the key pros and cons between these two onchain options.
USDC.e vs USDC: key differences explained
In the beginning, all USDC was issued by Circle on Ethereum. Now, you have a plethora of blockchain options for native USDC (i.e., USDC officially and directly issued by Circle1), and bridged USDC.
If you're wondering about the difference between bridged USDC vs native USDC, this table highlights the most important factors.
Native USDC is:
- Issued by regulated affiliates of Circle
- Fully backed by highly liquid cash and cash equivalents
- Available on 20+ blockchains as of June 30, 2025 (see here for a complete list)
Bridged USDC is:
- A bridged third-party version of USDC that’s not issued directly by Circle
- Backed by USDC locked on another blockchain
- Dependent on the bridge used for its security features
Security considerations with traditional blockchain bridges
One of the critical differences between native and bridged USDC relates to security. Bridges are one of the most common weak points of blockchain tech. Bridging creates an additional vulnerability not found with native digital assets like native USDC. When tokens are bridged between blockchains, they typically rely on smart contracts and intermediary networks to lock assets on one chain and mint corresponding tokens on another. Each step introduces potential points of failure or attack, such as smart contract bugs, human errors, or exploits by malicious actors.
Bridging assets is a great way to add flexibility to a token, allowing it to function across multiple blockchain ecosystems, but this versatility can come at the cost of added complexity, trust assumptions (since users often have to trust bridge operators or validators), and increased technical risk. As a result, it's crucial for users and developers to thoroughly understand the security trade-offs involved in using bridged assets.
How to transfer native USDC across blockchains
The native vs bridged distinction also has important implications for transferring assets. Take the Avalanche blockchain, for example. At one point, many users were bridging native USDC from Ethereum to Avalanche as USDC.e using traditional third-party bridges. Now, Circle supports native USDC on over 20 blockchains (as of June 30, 2025) including Avalanche. While you could still use a traditional third-party bridge to get USDC.e on Avalanche, it’s much safer and simpler to transfer native USDC from a blockchain like Ethereum for the native version of USDC on Avalanche — opting to not use bridged assets at all.
Transferring native USDC with CCTP
Thanks to Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), you can send native USDC through the network of supported chains using any third-party bridge, wallet, or dApp that integrates it. A CCTP-powered bridge enables you to send native USDC from Avalanche to Ethereum, Ethereum to Base, and so on. You get the idea.
USDC is natively issued on over 20 blockchains as of June 30, 2025, and CCTP3 supports seamlessly native-to-native USDC transfers between more than half of them today. All without the need to get bridged USDC or rely on a traditional lock-and-mint blockchain bridge. Instead of locking native USDC in a smart contract on one blockchain and minting bridged USDC on another, CCTP actually burns (or destroys) native USDC on the origin chain and mints (or creates) new native USDC on the supported destination chain.
Many third-party bridges now integrate CCTP for native transfers as opposed to traditional bridging methods. Bridges like Allbridge, Interport, and Wormhole, for example, leverage CCTP for native USDC transfers between supported blockchains.
Should using CCTP-enabled bridges over traditional bridges matter to you? We think so. It enables you to only deal with native USDC all the way through the bridging process. Whether you send money to a friend, pay for something online, or use DeFi dApps, you want a digital currency you can trust. When you use native USDC, you're using the official version backed by Circle. When you use a bridged version, you’re introducing an added layer of complexity and risk. When possible, it’s wise to prefer native USDC over bridged USDC.
How to swap USDC.e to USDC
You can swap USDC.e to USDC using third-party bridges and decentralized exchange (DEXs). (Note that CCTP-powered bridges will transfer native USDC between blockchains, not USDC.e.)
Bridged USDC is still useful for many purposes, especially on blockchains that don’t yet support native USDC. But it’s important to know a few things:
- You’ll need to convert it back to native USDC before it can be redeemed for USD.
- You could face added steps, delays, or other issues when trying to move or swap bridged USDC.
- Bridged USDC might not be supported in every app or wallet. Bridged asset support within apps, DEXs, and other onchain systems can be hit or miss. That can lead to failed transactions, stuck tokens, or limited functionality.
To be clear, bridged assets are an important part of the blockchain ecosystem and improve digital asset liquidity, enhance interoperability, and a whole lot more. They helped unlock multichain functionality long before native assets caught up. When you want to move your USDC on an unsupported chain, bridged USDC could make a lot of sense. However, native USDC is now available on 20 blockchains, including many of the most popular options. When available, native USDC is the simpler and safer option — and therefore preferable for most users.
How to tell the difference between USDC and USDC.e
Before you make any hasty transactions, it’s important to identify which version of USDC you’re using. If you’re not sure whether the tokens in your wallet are USDC or USDC.e, there are a few simple steps you can take to check.
First, look closely at the token name and ticker. Most wallets and exchanges label the native version simply as USDC. The bridged version is typically labeled as “USDC.e” or “Bridged USDC.”
You can also cross-reference the token contract address. Circle publishes the native USDC addresses for each blockchain that supports native USDC. Compare the address you have with the one listed on Circle’s website. If they match, you have native USDC. If they don’t match, you probably have USDC.e or another form of bridged USDC.
Still not sure? Simply ask the wallet, exchange, or app that you’re using. While most platforms make it clear what assets you have, it’s sometimes not the case. When in doubt, don’t guess — ask. It’s your money. Check their site’s help center or reach out directly to their customer support team.
Native USDC is the preferred option
USDC and USDC.e are easy to confuse, but they’re not the same.
Native USDC is issued by regulated affiliates of Circle and is fully backed by highly liquid cash and cash equivalents.
Bridged versions of USDC (like USDC.e) are backed by locked USDC. Bridged USDC introduces additional third-party dependencies that may carry increased technical or security risks.
If you want the version that's redeemable 1:1 for USD and designed to securely work across supported blockchains, stick with native USDC.
USDC.e and other bridged tokens can absolutely serve a purpose, especially in ecosystems where native USDC isn’t yet supported. But as native USDC becomes available on more blockchains, there will be less need to use bridged alternatives.
So whether you're sending money, building an app, buying an NFT, or just getting started with digital dollars, remember that native USDC provides for a more secure, seamless experience.
