Dragonfly-Backed Codex Launches Blockchain for Stablecoins with Native USDC Support

Codex, a new blockchain network for stablecoins that secured $16 million earlier this year from Dragonfly Capital, Coinbase, Circle, and other notable investors, has officially launched its mainnet to help make digital dollars more practical for everyday finance.

The network went live today, June 24, with native support for USDC, which means the stablecoin can move across Codex without needing a cross-chain bridge or wrapper. Per a press release shared with The Defiant, the goal of Codex is to offer a smoother way for businesses and institutions to use stablecoins just as their global capitalization has recently climbed above $250 billion.

Codex co-founder Haonan Li said in an interview with The Defiant that the project is trying to solve what he sees as the real challenge in stablecoin adoption, not blockchain speed or transaction limits, but the gap between crypto and traditional money.

“In our view, neither TPS nor latency are really the bottlenecks for stablecoin adoption today,” he said. “The real bottlenecks are all at the fiat <> crypto boundary. Blockchain teams historically have not focused on these boundary problems, they typically do not have the interest or expertise to solve these problems.”

Confidentiality at Scale

To address this, Codex is working on licenses, partnerships with payment ramps, and banking relationships, Li says. The developers plan to roll out features like instant currency swaps, atomic off-ramps that don’t leave users’ money stuck due to compliance issues, and more reliable cash delivery systems in regions where existing off-ramps are slow or untrustworthy.

Codex’s swap platform — called Codex Avenue — already offers trades between stablecoins and fiat, including large trades close to 1:1 pricing, the team revealed in the press release. Additional features, such as automated compliance checks and risk-free fiat delivery using validators held accountable by the network itself, are expected by late 2025.

“This is why Codex will be where the stablecoin future will happen, and why we are proud to work with stablecoin issuers such as Circle,” Li said.

When asked about on-chain privacy features, Li said Codex is working with top teams in crypto to allow some parts of transactions to stay private, while still meeting compliance standards. The chain will use new zero-knowledge and encryption tools to offer this kind of confidentiality at scale. “More to share soon,” he hinted, without diving into technical details.

While Codex launches with USDC, Li confirmed the team is planning to support all major stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT and Circle’s euro-backed EURC. “Codex works with all issuers. We believe the stablecoin chain of the future must provide native access to all stablecoins,” he told The Defiant, though no timeline for those integrations was specified.

Earlier this month, another stablecoin-focused blockchain, Plasma, saw overwhelming demand for participation in its $50 million token sale, while Circle’s long-awaited IPO was also oversubscribed and, it turned out, undervalued — both signs of strong demand for exposure to stablecoins. As of yesterday, Circle’s market cap surpassed the current circulating market cap of USDC itself.