Circle and Lighter hoist USDC as flagship stablecoin, unlocking full trading and settlement across all decks

Circle has entered into a partnership with onchain derivatives venue Lighter that makes USDC the default and preferred stablecoin across all of Lighter’s products, covering both trading and back-end infrastructure. According to Circle’s announcement, USDC will be used for spot and perpetual contract trading, settlement, clearing, liquidations, and user onboarding, effectively standardizing a single dollar-based asset as the core collateral and settlement rail across Lighter’s platform. This positions USDC as Lighter’s flagship stablecoin and embeds Circle’s stablecoin infrastructure more deeply into a specialized onchain derivatives environment. The move fits into Circle’s broader strategy to push native USDC as the standard settlement layer across different types of trading venues, similar to its earlier collaborations in areas like prediction markets and cross-border settlement. For Lighter, consolidating activity around USDC is presented as a way to streamline margining and liquidation processes, reduce friction between different stablecoins, and offer more predictable dollar-based accounting for traders and market makers. Against the backdrop of rising competition among stablecoins, this deal underscores USDC’s push to gain share as the primary quote and collateral asset in DeFi and onchain derivatives markets, while giving Circle greater integration into the infrastructure of emerging decentralized exchanges.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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