Polymarket will migrate from bridged USDC on Polygon to Circle-issued native USDC, reducing reliance on cross-chain bridges as prediction markets expand.
Circle Internet Group has partnered with Polymarket to transition the prediction market’s settlement infrastructure to native USDC, replacing bridged stablecoin collateral used for trading on its platform.
According to Thursday’s announcement, Polymarket currently uses bridged USDC (USDC.e) on Polygon as trading collateral and plans to migrate to Circle-issued native USDC (USDC) over the next few months. Native USDC is issued by Circle’s regulated entities and can be redeemed one-for-one for US dollars, offering a “capital-efficient” and scalable alternative without relying on cross-chain bridges.
Cross-chain bridges are protocols that transfer tokens between blockchains by locking assets on one network and issuing corresponding representations on another. However, secure cross-chain communication introduces trade-offs in security, trust or flexibility that are not present on a single blockchain.
