Bybit and Circle Team to Expand USDC Access

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is teaming with an affiliate of Circle, issuer of the USDC stablecoin.

The collaboration, announced Monday (Dec. 8), is designed to expand access to USDC across Bybit’s ecosystem while strengthening the coin’s liquidity.

“Bybit’s partnership with Circle represents a major milestone in our mission to offer a fully compliant, liquid, and user-friendly ecosystem,” Ben Zhou, Bybit’s co-founder and CEO, said in a news release.

“From trading to payments to savings, we are integrating USDC to power the next phase of our platform’s growth and stability.”

As part of this collaboration, the release added, Bybit will enhance USDC liquidity across spot and derivatives markets, allowing for what the companies say will be a more efficient trading environment for retail and institutional users.

The companies also plan to introduce a series of campaigns and initiatives to bolster the utility of USDC across Bybit’s products and services. The collaboration will also involve on-ramp and off-ramp solutions, the companies say, merging Circle’s infrastructure and partnership network with Bybit’s global reach to simplify deposits and withdrawals throughout critical markets.

“Bybit also plans to expand USDC integration across its ecosystem, including Bybit Earn for savings, Bybit Card for cashback rewards, and Bybit Pay for everyday transactions — while reinforcing its commitment to compliance and responsible innovation,” the release added.

Writing about Circle’s third-quarter earnings last month, PYMNTS noted that stablecoins are “trying to shed their reputation as a paradox in the payments space.”

Stablecoins, that report said, “are technologically elegant yet commercially precarious,” and continue to face questions about their utility. Still, their long-term architectural ambitions are becoming harder to ignore in traditional finance, especially when it comes to capital markets and moving money across borders.

“More and more firms who are involved in money movement, who are involved in cross-border money movement, … all of those want to take advantage of the speed and capital efficiency and cost efficiency of stablecoin infrastructure,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said on the earnings call.

“We’re seeing the catalysts from established firms…,” he added.

Beyond the quarterly results, PYMNTS wrote, Circle’s pathway looks like that of a hybrid between a regulated financial platform and internet protocol, rather than a payments company. In that sense, its ambitions are reminiscent of the early pioneers of web commerce.

“Just as HTTP abstracted away the complexity of network communication, Circle aims to abstract away the friction of global money movement,” the report added. “The result could be a world where sending dollars is as seamless as sending data. It’s a vision that has animated cryptocurrency’s most enduring promises but has rarely been realized at scale.”