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Circle Unveils Paymaster to Allow USDC to Be Used for Transaction Fees

The product allows users to interact with decentralized applications using USDC only, ditching the need for native tokens.

By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Sheldon Reback
Jan 23, 2025, 3:12 p.m.
Circle set up its own "house" on the Promenade. (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)
(Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

What to know:

  • Circle introduced Paymaster, which lets users pay transaction fees on Arbitrum and Base with USDC.
  • Paymaster charges a 10% fee on gas cost, currently waived until Jun. 30.

Circle, the issuer of the $48 billion USDC stablecoin, introduced Paymaster, a product allowing users to pay for transaction fees on Arbitrum and Base using the second-biggest stablecoin instead of ether (ETH), the second-biggest cryptocurrency.

Blockchain transactions require users to pay transaction fees that are used to compensate validators for processing and securing these transactions. Different blockchains often use different tokens, forcing users to manage an assortment of tokens across the various chains.

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Paymaster accepts USDC and then handles the native token payments to the blockchain validators, the company said in a blog post.

The service, which is set to expand to Ethereum, Polygon POS, and Solana, charges users 10% of the gas cost for each transaction. The fee is being waived until June 30 to encourage adoption.

CircleUSDCgas feesFastNews

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