How USDC on Stellar works and where it earns yield

Circle issues USDC natively on Stellar, and since Soroban smart contracts went live that USDC can be lent, pooled and deposited into vaults on the same network.

USDC on Stellar is Circle's dollar stablecoin issued directly on the Stellar network, with no bridge in between. About $343 million of it was in circulation on 23 September 2026, according to DefiLlama, and every token is redeemable 1:1 for dollars through Circle, the same as USDC on Ethereum or Solana.

For most of its life Stellar USDC was a payments asset, used by remittance apps and exchanges because transfers cost a fraction of a cent and settle in seconds. Smart contracts arrived in 2024, and USDC on Stellar now has a DeFi layer of its own.

What USDC on Stellar is

Circle issued USDC on Stellar in January 2021 from a single issuer account. The asset has two identifiers, depending on whether a wallet or a smart contract is handling it:

• Classic asset: code USDC, issuer GA5ZSEJYB37JRC5AVCIA5MOP4RHTM335X2KGX3IHOJAPP5RE34K4KZVN. Wallets and exchanges use this form.
• Soroban contract: the same USDC wrapped by Stellar's Stellar Asset Contract, which lets smart contracts hold and move it. It's one asset under two interfaces, so nothing gets bridged or re-wrapped between them.

Circle lists the official addresses on its USDC contract addresses page. Any token called USDC from a different issuer is a different asset.

How trustlines work

A Stellar account has to opt in to an asset before it can hold it, by adding a trustline. Most wallets do this with one tap when you add USDC, and it reserves a small amount of XLM on the account while the trustline exists.

On 23 September 2026 stellar.expert counted 2.4 million USDC trustlines, of which about 703,000 held a balance. Tokens that live inside Soroban contracts, including vault share tokens, keep their balances in contract storage and need no trustline.

Fees and settlement speed

• The Stellar network sets a base fee of 100 stroops, or 0.00001 XLM, per operation, paid in XLM whatever asset is sent, and it rises only when the network is congested (Stellar fee docs)
• A new ledger closes about every 5 seconds, and a payment is final once it's in a closed ledger
• Stellar also has a built-in order book, so USDC can be swapped against XLM and other assets at the protocol level

That cost profile is why payment companies adopted it early. Circle's own page lists MoneyGram, Bitso and a range of wallets and ramps building on Stellar USDC.

How to get USDC onto Stellar

• Circle Mint: institutions wire dollars to Circle and choose Stellar as the delivery chain (Circle).
• Exchanges: withdraw USDC on the Stellar network from an exchange that supports it, such as Bitso or Binance.
• Cash ramps: MoneyGram, MoonPay, Banxa and Transak convert local currency to Stellar USDC.
• CCTP: Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol went live on Stellar in May 2026. It burns USDC on the source chain and Circle mints the same amount natively on Stellar, so a transfer from Ethereum or Solana arrives as native USDC.

When withdrawing from an exchange, pick the Stellar network and include the memo if the receiving address needs one. Sending on the wrong network is the most common way to lose funds.

What Soroban changed

Stellar's smart contract platform, Soroban, went live on mainnet with Protocol 20 on 20 February 2024. Before that, USDC on Stellar could be sent and traded on the order book and not much else. Contracts made lending markets, automated market makers and vaults possible.

DefiLlama put total DeFi deposits on Stellar at about $262 million on 23 September 2026. The largest protocols by deposits were:

Stablecoin supply on Stellar has grown faster than DeFi deposits. DefiLlama shows $906 million of stablecoins on the network, up from $214 million a year earlier.

Where USDC on Stellar earns yield

USDC pays nothing to the person holding it. Under the GENIUS Act, US stablecoin issuers can't pay holders interest, so any return comes from lending the USDC out or putting it to work somewhere else.

Rates on Stellar move with borrowing demand and with incentive programmes, and some headline rates are paid partly in reward tokens that end when the programme does. Any quoted rate is a snapshot.

How Upshift's Stellar vault works

Gami's earnUSDC vault runs on Upshift's Stellar vault contracts and held about $25.5 million on 23 September 2026. It takes native USDC, issues a share token, and Gami Labs allocates the deposits across Stellar protocols such as Blend and Aquarius. The share token grows against USDC as the strategy earns.

• Contract: a Soroban vault built on OpenZeppelin's Stellar token library, with its source code published on GitHub and a Halborn audit (Stellar vault docs)
• Pricing: share price comes from the vault's own balances and deployed positions, with no external price oracle
• Withdrawals: instant up to the USDC the vault holds on hand, with larger amounts returned as the curator unwinds positions
• Wallet: connect a Stellar wallet such as Freighter on the earnUSDC vault page, which also shows the current rate

Stellar is one of several non-EVM chains Upshift supports, alongside Solana, across more than 30 chains in total. The roles in a vault stay the same on each: the curator sets strategy, the contract enforces limits, and depositors hold their own shares.

Risks

Stellar DeFi is young and growing fast, with stablecoin supply on the network up more than fourfold in a year. Lending pools on Stellar are isolated from one another, which kept a February 2026 oracle exploit on one community-run pool from spreading to any other.

• Protocol risk: bugs or oracle failures in the lending pools and AMMs that USDC is deposited into
• Vault risk: the vault contract itself and the curator's choice of pools. Upshift's contracts have had 10 smart contract audits by 6 independent firms
• Liquidity risk: in a stressed market, withdrawals above the vault's cash on hand wait for positions to unwind
• Issuer risk: USDC depends on Circle's reserves and its ability to redeem, the same on every chain

Always make sure to do your own research and be aware of the above and any other risks before depositing.

Frequently asked questions

Is USDC on Stellar native or bridged?
Native. Circle issues it directly on Stellar, and it's redeemable 1:1 for dollars through Circle.

What is the USDC issuer address on Stellar?
GA5ZSEJYB37JRC5AVCIA5MOP4RHTM335X2KGX3IHOJAPP5RE34K4KZVN, with asset code USDC. Circle publishes it on its contract addresses page.

How do I add USDC to a Stellar wallet?
Add a USDC trustline for Circle's issuer. Most wallets do this when you search for USDC and tap add. It reserves a small amount of XLM.

How do I move USDC from Ethereum to Stellar?
Use a CCTP-enabled bridge or app, which burns USDC on Ethereum and mints it natively on Stellar. Withdrawing from an exchange on the Stellar network also works.

How much does it cost to send USDC on Stellar?
The Stellar network charges a base fee of 0.00001 XLM per operation, paid in XLM, a tiny fraction of a cent, and payments settle in about 5 seconds.

Can I earn yield on USDC on Stellar?
Yes, through lending pools like Blend, liquidity pools, or a vault such as earnUSDC that allocates across them. Rates vary and aren't guaranteed.

Keep reading

• How to earn yield on stablecoins in 2026. The main routes to stablecoin yield on any chain, compared.
• What are DeFi yield vaults. How vaults allocate deposits and how to compare them.
• How onchain yield vaults are secured. Audits, access controls and what each one protects against.
• Stellar developer docs. Assets, Soroban contracts and network fees from the source.