Circle's USDCx Goes Live on Cardano — Minswap, Liqwid, and SundaeSwap Integrate on Day One

Circle's USDCx went live on Cardano mainnet on February 27, 2026 — confirmed by IOG, the Cardano Foundation, and cardano.org. USDCx is backed 1:1 by USDC held in Circle's xReserve system and uses Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), a burn-and-mint mechanism that avoids the custody risks of traditional bridges. Users deposit USDC on Ethereum and receive USDCx on Cardano; the process is fully reversible.

Minswap, Liqwid Finance, and SundaeSwap all integrated USDCx on launch day. In the weeks following, USDCx captured 36% of all on-chain stablecoin liquidity on Cardano. Minswap, the ecosystem's largest DEX, recorded a 17% TVL jump to $36M. Liqwid grew 4% to $32M TVL. SundaeSwap sits at $12M in third position. Unlike DJED (algorithmic) or USDM (fiat-backed), USDCx is a direct USDC analog — making it the most trusted dollar instrument available on Cardano to date.

The launch was coordinated by the Cardano Pentad (IOG, Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, Intersect, Midnight Foundation) and funded through the Critical Integrations treasury program. The arrival of a Circle-backed stablecoin is considered a key infrastructure milestone for Cardano DeFi, enabling dollar-denominated trading pairs, lending markets, and stable liquidity provision on the eUTxO model for the first time at institutional quality.