Alpen Labs to add USDC, CCTP to Bitcoin finance system

Bitcoin layer-two developer Alpen Labs announced a partnership with Circle to integrate USDC and CCTP into its Bitcoin finance system. The move will allow Bitcoin holders to borrow, lend and trade using USDC liquidity without selling BTC or moving it to another network. Alpen Labs said CCTP will also connect USDC between Alpen and other supported networks. The company said users will be able to move USDC across multiple chains without relying on wrapped tokens for swaps, payments and treasury rebalancing.