Circle and Sony Block Solutions Labs partner to enable USDC on Soneium

• Circle and Sony Block Solutions Labs partner to bring USDC on Soneium.
• The Ethereum layer 2 will integrate bridged USDC, allowing users and developers to tap into borderless transactions and digital dollar payments.
• USDC will help the creator economy on Soneium and the web3 ecosystem, the companies said in a press release.

Circle, issuer of stablecoin USDC, is partnering with Sony to bolster the creator ecosystem on the recently launched Ethereum layer 2 solution Soneium.

The strategic partnership is between Circle and Sony Block Solutions Labs, Sony Group’s blockchain infrastructure company that launched Soneium in August.

Soneium launched its Minato testnet and the Spark incubation program in late August and has partnered several other industry players amid its vision of empowering developers and bringing web3 to the mainstream.

“This collaboration marks a significant milestone for Circle’s mission to accelerate the adoption of our stablecoins and blockchain technology, and empower creators to flourish through secure, user-friendly web3 experiences,” Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and chief executive officer at Circle, said in a press release.

Bridged USDC on Soneium

Sony Block Solutions Labs’ collaboration with Circle aims at bringing USDC to developers and users on Soneium. In this case, the layer 2 is adopting bridged USDC as one of its primary value exchange tokens.

The integration will see users leverage the stablecoin to unlock new opportunities across the layer 2’s ecosystem, including enabling cross-border transactions and deployment of decentralised applications.

With bridged USDC as proxy for native USDC on Ethereum, developers can tap into key stablecoin features and benefits to build on L2 networks. For Soneium users, this includes using USDC to power dApps with digital dollar payments.

“By integrating Circle’s financial infrastructure with Soneium, we are set to redefine the landscape of digital entertainment and finance,” Jun Watanabe, Chairman of Sony Block Solutions Labs, said.

Notably, Soneium’s integration of a bridged version of the stablecoin means it could later upgrade to native issuance.

As highlighted above, Sony Block Solutions Labs has struck several key partnerships as it looks to further accelerate web3 growth.

Other than Circle, Soneium launch partners include Astar Network, Chainlink, Alchemy, Optimism and The Graph. The L2 has also partnered with Transak to bring fiat currency payments to the network.