USDC network fees and cost considerations

USDC exists on multiple blockchain networks. Network fees vary significantly by network, so your testing and production experience can look very different depending on which network a wallet is using.

What Bead supports today

We support USDC on these networks only:

• Base network

• Solana network

We do not support USDC on Ethereum mainnet at this time.

Why Ethereum mainnet can be expensive

Ethereum mainnet fees can fluctuate heavily due to network congestion. Even simple USDC transfers can be meaningfully more expensive than Base or Solana.

Base network fees

Base fees are typically very low. For the smoothest experience on Base USDC, we recommend Coinbase Wallet. Depending on the wallet experience, fees can sometimes appear free if gas is abstracted or covered, but otherwise there may still be a small network fee.

Solana network fees

Solana fees are typically negligible and often well under a penny for standard transactions. I use Phantom for USDC on Solana, but any wallet that supports Solana will work.

BEP20 and other networks

BEP20 refers to BNB Smart Chain. We have discussed support for this network, but we do not support it yet. On our roadmap, the next stablecoin we plan to add is USDT.

Practical guidance

• If a user is paying with USDC, they must have a sufficient USDC balance on the supported network they are using.

• If you are optimizing for lower fees, Base and Solana are the supported options today.