Circle has shortened the cross-chain settlement time of USDC to a few seconds through agreement updates

PANews reported on March 11, according to The Block, that Circle, the issuer of stablecoin USDC, announced an agreement update on Tuesday stating it will reduce cross-chain settlement times from a few minutes to just seconds. The company's newly launched Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2 (CCTP V2) will improve upon CCTP V1 by using "a new set of smart contracts and APIs" to shorten the typical blockchain transaction time between Ethereum and Layer 2 blockchains from an average of 13 to 19 minutes down to just a few seconds.

Circle stated that initially CCTP V2 will be made available for developers working on Avalanche, Base and Ethereum but plans are in place to extend support for more blockchains within this year. Circle said: "CCTP V1 will continue to be available on 11 blockchains," adding that since its launch in 2023, "CCTP has facilitated over $36 billion in transactions." Some new features emphasized by Circle about CCTP V2 include "Hooks", which they say allows developers "to automate post-transfer operations on the target blockchain."