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Circle Payments Network (CPN) is a next-generation payment infrastructure designed to reduce reliance on multiple intermediaries while enhancing transparency, security, and speed. Using onchain primitives and built-in compliance capabilities, CPN delivers near-instant cross-border settlement. CPN allows participating financial institutions to rapidly expand their global footprint with a single integration. This developer documentation focuses on Originating Financial Institutions (OFIs) who facilitate cross-border payments for their customers. OFIs interface with ultimate senders initiating cross-border transactions, and act as the onramp for fiat to crypto. Complementing this, Beneficiary Financial Institutions (BFIs) receive stablecoins and act as the offramp into local fiat, delivering funds to end recipients. CPN actively coordinates OFIs and BFIs to deliver cross-border transactions with reduced costs and delays compared to traditional systems. CPN is part of Circle’s broader ecosystem of financial products, designed to work with the USDC ecosystem to optimize your global payment operations. Before onboarding as an OFI, you should meet the following prerequisites for CPN:
  • Access to USDC liquidity
  • A custodial solution for USDC and technical capability to interact with blockchains (sign and observe transactions)
  • Established KYC and AML processes in place for your customers
Note: If you’re a BFI or payout partner, Circle may reach out proactively as CPN grows.

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Key features

  • Real-time FX quoting and locking: CPN obtains competitive quotes from multiple providers instantly. FX rates are locked, which eliminates FX risk for both OFIs and their customers during the payment process.
  • Smart routing: CPN selects the optimal BFI based on pricing and operational preferences defined by the OFI.
  • Stablecoin-powered transfers: Payments are settled using USDC across supported blockchains and exchanged to local fiat currencies for the receiver.
  • API integration: CPN offers a comprehensive API suite, which allows for quick integration into existing systems. Features include real-time payment monitoring with webhooks, detailed developer documentation, and dedicated support to ensure a successful integration process.
  • End-to-end encryption: Travel rule and beneficiary account data is encrypted by the OFI throughout the payment process and can only be decrypted by the designated BFI.
  • Ticketing support for payments, disputes, and reversals: CPN allows integrated institutions to create and manage support tickets through the API. Circle handles routing and resolution of issues across the network.
CPN White PaperRead the CPN White Paper to learn more about the motivation for creating CPN and its intended use cases.

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Entities in CPN

The following entities are referenced in this documentation and make up the key entities that allow CPN to perform cross-border transactions.
  • Senders (external): Businesses or individuals initiating cross-border payments
  • Receivers (external): Businesses or individuals receiving cross-border payments
  • Originating Financial Institutions (OFIs): Financial institutions that interface with senders, onramp fiat to USDC, and connect with BFIs through CPN for transfer and fiat offramp
  • Beneficiary Financial Institutions (BFIs): Financial institutions that receive USDC from OFIs through CPN and provide an offramp to local fiat currency
  • Circle Payments Network (CPN): Orchestration layer that aggregates financial institutions, vets participants, and facilitates money movement through onchain and offchain services.