What is USDC?

A stable digital dollar used for payments on JoPay.

Overview

USDC (USD Coin) is a digital currency that is always worth one US dollar. It is issued by Circle, a regulated financial technology company, and each USDC token is backed 1:1 by US dollar reserves held in regulated financial institutions. Circle publishes monthly attestation reports from an independent accounting firm to verify these reserves.

Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can swing in value by 10% or more in a single day, USDC maintains a stable $1.00 peg. This makes it practical for everyday business payments where price predictability matters.

USDC is a stablecoin — a type of digital currency designed to maintain a fixed value. 1 USDC = 1 USD, always.

Why not Bitcoin or Ethereum?

Traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are volatile assets. A merchant who accepts 100 USDT worth of Bitcoin today might find it worth $85 tomorrow. This makes them unsuitable for business payments where both parties need to agree on a fixed amount.

USDC solves this problem. When a customer sends 50 USDC, the merchant receives exactly $50 worth of value. There is no conversion risk, no slippage, and no need to immediately sell the received asset to lock in a price.

Property	USDC	Bitcoin / Ethereum
Price stability	Pegged to $1.00	Highly volatile
Backing	USD reserves (audited)	Market supply and demand
Suitable for payments	Yes	Risky for fixed-amount payments
Transfer time	Seconds to minutes	Minutes to hours

How USDC works on JoPay

JoPay uses USDC as its payment asset. When a merchant creates a payment request for $100 USD, the customer sends 100 USDC. The merchant receives 100 USDC directly in their wallet. JoPay never holds or moves the funds — it only creates the payment instruction and verifies the on-chain transfer.

Merchants can display prices in any of the 28 supported fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, BRL, etc.). JoPay converts the display amount to a USDC equivalent using live FX rates so the customer knows exactly how much USDC to send.

USDC on multiple chains

USDC exists on many blockchain networks. JoPay supports USDC on twelve EVM-compatible chains, including Polygon, Base, Arbitrum One, Optimism, Ethereum, Avalanche, Gnosis, BSC, Arbitrum Nova, Monad, Soneium, and Katana. The USDC token on each chain is the same asset with the same $1.00 value — the difference is in transaction speed and gas fees.

Most JoPay merchants use Polygon or Base because gas fees are fractions of a cent. Ethereum mainnet is available for high-value transfers where maximum network security is preferred. See Supported chains for the full comparison.

New to crypto? Think of USDC as a digital dollar bill. You can send it instantly to anyone in the world, 24/7, without a bank. The only cost is a small network fee (gas) paid by the sender.

EURC for euro payments

Circle also issues EURC (Euro Coin), a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the euro. EURC follows the same model as USDC — fully backed by euro reserves, audited, and redeemable.

Partners operating in euro-denominated markets can configure their platform to use EURC instead of USDC. This eliminates USD/EUR conversion for European merchants and their customers.

Converting USDC to fiat

Merchants who want to convert their USDC to local currency can do so through any cryptocurrency exchange that supports USDC (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, etc.) or through Circle directly. JoPay does not perform fiat conversion — it is a payment instruction layer only.