SEI upgrade imminent, risk warning issued: USDC.n holders should exchange for native USDC as soon as possible

Layer 1 blockchain project SEI recently issued an important reminder to the community, warning users holding USDC.n to exchange their assets for “native USDC” before the planned network upgrade in March. Failure to do so may result in inability to use the assets or a loss in value. This reminder has sparked significant market attention on SEI’s stablecoin structure adjustment.

USDC.n is an older version of USDC issued via Noble Network and bridged to SEI. Before Circle launched native USDC on the SEI network, USDC.n was the most widely used USD stablecoin within the SEI ecosystem. As Circle introduces SEI native USDC, this transitional version is gradually being phased out.

On-chain data shows that the current USDC.n issued by Noble on the SEI network is approximately $1.4 million, significantly lower than the previous several million dollars. The reason is that more users are actively converting USDC.n into the officially supported native USDC on SEI to avoid potential technical and liquidity risks.

SEI plans to implement a critical SIP-3 upgrade in March. This upgrade will deprecate CosmWasm and the native Cosmos asset system, transforming SEI into a blockchain architecture that only supports EVM. SEI officials have explicitly stated that after the upgrade, USDC.n may become inaccessible on the network or face devaluation risks due to compatibility issues.

For users with different holdings, SEI has provided specific operational suggestions. Small USDC.n holders can directly exchange via DragonSwap or Symphony; larger holders are advised to use the conversion tools provided by Brr to transfer assets in bulk from Noble to Polygon, and ultimately swap back to SEI native USDC through Circle’s CCTP cross-chain protocol.

Noble is an application chain supported by the Cosmos ecosystem, focused on issuing native assets for Cosmos/IBC networks. It acts as an intermediary between stablecoin issuers like Circle, Hashnote Labs, Monerium, Ondo Finance, and Cosmos blockchains. As early as the end of 2023, Circle Ventures had invested in the SEI network and promoted the native deployment of USDC on SEI.

Overall, this USDC.n migration reminder is not only a technical upgrade notice but also reflects SEI’s accelerating move towards the EVM ecosystem. For users concerned with SEI upgrades, USDC.n risks, SEI native USDC, and stablecoin cross-chain migration, completing the exchange in advance will be a key step to reduce uncertainty.