The USDC wallet that also spends Bitcoin.

USDC (USD Coin) is a stablecoin issued by Circle, backed 1:1 by short‑duration US Treasuries and cash held with regulated US custodians. Reserves are attested monthly by a Big‑Four accounting firm. Compared to USDT, the trade‑off is transparency over liquidity: USDC publishes a clearer reserve report, USDT trades on more pairs.

• Volatility hedge — swap to USDC when BTC moves, swap back when you’re ready.
• One backup — a single 12‑word seed restores both balances.
• One card — the Visa card spends whichever balance you tap.
• No bank account needed — USDC is dollars on‑chain, not in a bank.

• 0.1% BTC ↔ USDC swap, executed in‑wallet
• 0.5% on‑ramp / off‑ramp network markup
• 0% FX markup on the Visa card
• $0 monthly fee, $0 to hold USDC

• vs. MetaMask — MetaMask holds USDC on Ethereum / L2s but gas fees apply to every move and there’s no Bitcoin or card.
• vs. Coinbase Wallet — also non‑custodial, but no Lightning routing and no integrated Visa card.
• vs. Cash App — custodial; the exchange holds the keys and can freeze the account.

We support both. Full breakdown on the USDC vs USDT page — short version: USDC for transparency, USDT for liquidity. Most users hold USDC.

USDC in Lightning Pay is held on Lightning-aligned rails: settlement happens in seconds, balances move as cleanly as Bitcoin, and there is no gas tank to keep topped up. Internally we use Taproot Assets where available and bridge to Ethereum-native USDC via a 1:1 reserve for on/off-ramp, so your balance is always fungible with Circle's Ethereum-issued USDC at parity.

The wallet's USDC balance lives under the same 12-word seed as your Bitcoin. There is no separate "stablecoin wallet" to back up, no separate seed to lose, and no separate password. One seed, two assets, one Visa card.

• Dollar savings without a US bank account — common for users in countries with banking friction or capital controls.
• Payroll receipt — receive salary in USDC, swap a portion to BTC, hold the rest as spendable dollars.
• Volatility hedge during BTC drawdowns — one tap to swap BTC to USDC at 0.1%, one tap back when the market settles.
• Cross-border remittances — send USDC instantly to family abroad; they spend it on a Visa card or swap to local currency.
• Merchant float — small businesses keep working capital in USDC, pay suppliers in USDC, and avoid card-processor delays.

USDC is as good as Circle's reserve. The reserve is invested in short-duration US Treasuries and cash at regulated US banks, audited monthly by Deloitte. In March 2023 USDC briefly traded at $0.88 after Silicon Valley Bank failed and held ~$3.3B of Circle's cash; the peg restored within 72 hours once the FDIC backstopped SVB depositors.

Bottom line: USDC carries issuer risk (Circle) and US banking-system risk. Bitcoin held in the same wallet carries neither. For most users the right answer is to hold both — USDC for spending stability, BTC for long-term savings.