Circle Abandons Cosmos' Native Stablecoin Pipeline Amid Regulatory Push

Circle has announced it is discontinuing USDC and CCTP V1 on the Noble blockchain, which is part of the Cosmos ecosystem. This decision comes as Circle launches its Arc mainnet with a validator set that includes institutional heavyweights like BlackRock and Visa.

The company prefers to focus on infrastructure that attracts institutional traffic, citing an OCC charter and a GENIUS Act enforcement cliff bearing down in January 2027.

Noble was the canonical stablecoin pipeline for Cosmos, but Circle is consolidating around infrastructure that meets regulatory requirements. The decommissioning of Noble's native issuance is not a surprise, given the Nov 14, 2025 deprecation notice.