How-to: Deposit for nanopayments

Deposit USDC into Gateway to enable gas-free, sub-cent payments powered by Circle Gateway.

Deposit USDC into Gateway once, then make payments without incurring gas costs on each transaction.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Installed Node.js v20.18.2 or later.

• Installed Circle CLI:

  npm install -g @circle-fin/cli
  

• Completed the Agent Wallets quickstart (authenticates and funds your wallet).

Steps

1. Deposit USDC into Gateway

   Deposit USDC with your amount, wallet address, and blockchain. Direct deposits work from any Gateway-supported blockchain:

   circle gateway deposit --amount 5 --address 0xYourWalletAddress --chain BASE --method direct
   

   Use --method eco for fast deposits through Eco, which supports Base as the source blockchain and settles balances on Polygon PoS. Eco is a third-party fast-deposit service that Circle does not operate or audit. Review Eco’s docs and test the flow before using it in production.

2. Check your Gateway balance

   Confirm the deposit arrived:

   circle gateway balance --address 0xYourWalletAddress --chain BASE
   

   The command returns your current Gateway balance. A non-zero value confirms the deposit arrived.

See the CLI command reference for full syntax and options.