Circle has added prepaid fee payments to CCTP Fast Transfer. The change lets developers quote and collect cross-chain USDC fees on the source network, while the amount that lands with the recipient stays whole.
Under the previous method, protocol fees were deducted from the USDC minted on the destination chain. Someone sending 100 USDC could end up delivering less than the figure entered at the start. Now the transfer amount and the fee are separate things.
How the prepaid flow works
The process begins when an application requests a signed fee quote and submits it alongside the USDC burn transaction on the source blockchain. Once that transaction is in, a CCTP smart contract checks the signed quote, collects the payment, and passes the transaction to TokenMessengerV2, which completes the burn. Circle then verifies the transfer and mints the full stated amount on the destination chain.
Developers can use this for the Fast Transfer fee, the Forwarding Service fee, or both. Fast Transfer gets USDC to another chain before the source transaction reaches full finality. The Forwarding Service can deliver funds and complete an action on the receiving network. CCTP itself moves native USDC through burn-and-mint. Tokens are destroyed on the source chain, and the same amount is issued on the destination. No wrapped assets, which is the usual bridging approach.
Quote API and expiry windows
Through the CCTP Quote API, an application sends the transfer amount, the source and destination domain identifiers, the selected payment token, and the fees it wants priced. A PRE_FINALITY request covers Fast Transfer, while FORWARD covers the Forwarding Service. Both can go in the same API call, which saves developers from pricing them through separate systems.
The response contains the total fee, a breakdown for each service, the payment token, and the signed quote. If a developer changes a bound value before submitting, the transaction reverts. Quotes also carry an expiry time or source-chain block limit. Circle lists an approximate two-minute validity period for most supported networks, including Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Linea, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Sonic, Unichain, and World Chain. Ethereum quotes get an estimated window of two minutes and 30 seconds, though Circle notes that duration can change.
Payment options and one limitation
Fees can be paid in USDC or the source chain’s native gas asset. Native-token payment is the default, with the quoted amount attached to the transaction as its native value. Choosing USDC requires the application to enter the stablecoin’s source-chain address, and the user must approve TokenMessengerWithFees to spend both the transferred USDC and the extra USDC for the fee. The contract handles those amounts separately. Only the transfer amount enters the burn-and-mint process, while the prepaid fee is collected before the burn.
One catch: upfront fee quotes currently require the transfer to start on an EVM-compatible blockchain. Solana cannot act as a source network under this setup. Applications can still send USDC to Solana when the route and destination service are supported.
