USDC Native Integration - Polygon Developer Docs

The following examples are demonstrations of integrations and should not be used in production. In production, store sensitive information such as API keys and private keys in a secrets manager or vault.

This guide covers native USDC on Polygon Chain. Native USDC behaves like any other ERC-20 token: you can read balances, approve spenders, and transfer tokens directly onchain. For cross-chain USDC transfers using Circle’s CCTP, see USDC Gateway Integration.

Approach	Description	When to use
Native USDC	Standard ERC-20 contract directly on Polygon Chain	When you only need payments within Polygon
Gateway USDC	Circle’s cross-chain system that moves USDC between blockchains (CCTP)	When your users need to send or receive USDC across chains

Example: Read Balance and Transfer

The following example uses viem to check the USDC balance and send 1 USDC on Polygon.

// pnpm add viem
import { createPublicClient, createWalletClient, http, parseUnits } from "viem";
import { polygon } from "viem/chains";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

// Native USDC contract on Polygon Chain (not bridged USDC.e)
const USDC = "0x3c499c542cEF5E3811e1192ce70d8cC03d5c3359";

const erc20 = [
  { type: "function", name: "decimals", stateMutability: "view", inputs: [], outputs: [{ type: "uint8" }] },
  { type: "function", name: "balanceOf", stateMutability: "view", inputs: [{ type: "address" }], outputs: [{ type: "uint256" }] },
  { type: "function", name: "transfer", stateMutability: "nonpayable", inputs: [{ type: "address" }, { type: "uint256" }], outputs: [{ type: "bool" }] },
];

const account = privateKeyToAccount(process.env.PRIV_KEY as `0x${string}`);
const rpc = http(process.env.POLYGON_RPC_URL);
const pub = createPublicClient({ chain: polygon, transport: rpc });
const wallet = createWalletClient({ chain: polygon, transport: rpc, account });

async function main() {
  const me = account.address;
  const decimals = await pub.readContract({ address: USDC, abi: erc20, functionName: "decimals" });
  const bal = await pub.readContract({ address: USDC, abi: erc20, functionName: "balanceOf", args: [me] });
  console.log("Balance:", Number(bal) / 10 ** Number(decimals), "USDC");

  // Send 1 USDC
  const amount = parseUnits("1", Number(decimals));
  const hash = await wallet.writeContract({ address: USDC, abi: erc20, functionName: "transfer", args: ["0xRecipient...", amount] });
  console.log("tx:", hash);
}

main();

The example above reads PRIV_KEY from an environment variable, which is the minimum required for a production deployment. In production, go further: store private keys in a dedicated secrets manager (AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vault) and never let them touch application memory directly. A more durable pattern is to delegate signing to a backend service or use a managed key management service (KMS) that signs transactions server-side, so application code never holds the raw private key. The account object in viem is replaceable with any signer that implements the LocalAccount interface, including hardware wallets and KMS-backed signers.

Building on PoS

USDC Gateway Integration

⌘I

​Example: Read Balance and Transfer

Example: Read Balance and Transfer