Circle Gateway hits record weekly volume as USDC cross-chain transfers surge past $4.5B lifetime total
Circle Gateway just posted its best week ever for USDC minting and transfers, pushing the service’s total lifetime volume past $4.5 billion. For a piece of infrastructure most retail users have never heard of, that’s a number worth paying attention to.
Gateway is Circle’s answer to one of crypto’s most persistent headaches: moving stablecoins between blockchains without the jankiness of traditional bridges. Instead of locking tokens on one chain and minting wrapped versions on another, Gateway uses a burn-and-mint mechanism. You burn USDC on the source chain, an attestation gets issued, and fresh USDC gets minted on the destination chain. No wrapped tokens, no pre-positioned liquidity pools.
How Gateway actually works
The system operates across multiple blockchains, including Solana and EVM-compatible networks like Ethereum, Arbitrum, and others. Circle claims the process completes in under 500 milliseconds on supported chains.
A key milestone came in January 2026, when Circle deployed a pre-mint address for USDC on Solana ahead of Gateway’s full mainnet launch on that network.
The introduction of programmatic minting features has also expanded who can interact with Gateway directly. Rather than requiring manual processes or custom integrations, institutional partners can now access minting operations through standardized APIs.
The bigger USDC picture
USDC accounted for approximately 70% of adjusted stablecoin transaction volume during the first half of 2026.
Circle reported $21.5 trillion in on-chain USDC transaction volumes for Q1 2026 alone.
What this means for investors and the stablecoin market
Circle went public earlier this year, making its financial health more transparent than any other major stablecoin issuer.
The risk side of the equation isn’t zero. Circle’s burn-and-mint model centralizes trust in Circle itself. If Circle’s attestation service goes down, cross-chain USDC transfers stop.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Anthropic has been profitable for two consecutive quarters ahead of its IPO
Anthropic has achieved positive adjusted operating profit for two consecutive quarters, with Q2 revenue surging 14-fold year-on-year to $11.5 billion and annualized revenue reaching $65 billion. The gross margin exceeds 80%. The company has chosen to list on Nasdaq, with a potential valuation of up to $2 trillion. Dramatically, the CEO has made a rare call to slow down AI development just before the IPO. Analysts believe that balancing safety concerns with commercial competition will become the core challenge.
Anthropic signs $13.7 billion computing power agreement with "Trump-linked company" Rum Group
Anthropic has signed a $13.7 billion, six-year computing power agreement with Rum Group. The core of the agreement is a data center under construction in Georgia. Rum Group was formerly the conservative video platform Rumble, whose early investors include current U.S. Vice President Vance.
Will the midterm elections cause the US stock market to crash? 75 years of history give an unexpected answer
Currently, with less than eight weeks until the midterm elections, one of the greatest uncertainties facing Wall Street is imminent. But will the reshuffling of power in Congress lead to a stock market crash? Looking back over 75 years of history, the answer is surprising, and ultimately leans toward optimism.
Crypto prices
More
