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Sending funds from your Circle Account to external blockchain wallets is one of the most basic primitives (building blocks) enabled by the APIs. This quickstart walks through sending USDC USD externally. You can follow the same steps when sending EURC EUR as well.

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1. Get an API key

Circle’s APIs use API keys as the mechanism to authenticate client requests. The API key must be set in the Authorization header of the request sent from your backend server. The format of the header is Bearer secret-key-value.
To obtain an API key for the sandbox environment, create an account and generate a new key in settings. Once you have generated your API key, record it in a secure place.

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2. Fund Your Account

If you haven’t done so already, make sure you fund your account for testing. You can do this one of two ways: by using the Circle Payments API to accept a payment, or by receiving an external USDC transfer from a faucet or other source.

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3. Add Recipient Address

To send account funds externally, you need to allowlist a blockchain address to send to (destination). Adding an external wallet address via the API requires manual validation by an administrator. A notification to confirm the address is sent to all administrators when the API call is made. The sandbox environment uses the Ethereum Sepolia testing network, so the destination blockchain address has to be a valid Sepolia address.
USDC is available on testing networks on other blockchains as well. This guide focuses on Ethereum but works similarly for other blockchains. For information on other testing networks see Test USDC.
For France and Singapore customersCircle Mint France and Singapore customers must verify all transfer recipients using the UI in the Circle Console, as transfers from unverified addresses will be held in pending status. Please see Help Center articles below for details:
REQUEST 
curl --request POST \
     --url https://api-sandbox.circle.com/v1/businessAccount/wallets/addresses/recipient \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'authorization: Bearer ${YOUR_API_KEY}' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
  "chain": "ETH",
  "idempotencyKey": "2a308497-e66e-4c42-ac1e-7bedab86d958",
  "address": "0x493A9869E3B5f846f72267ab19B76e9bf99d51b1",
  "currency": "USD",
  "description": "https://usdcfaucet.com/"
}
'
RESPONSE
JSON
{
  "data": {
    "id": "cfa01bb0-d166-5506-a48a-56f2beab559f",
    "address": "0x493a9869e3b5f846f72267ab19b76e9bf99d51b1",
    "chain": "ETH",
    "currency": "USD",
    "description": "https://usdcfaucet.com/"
  }
}

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4. Send Funds

To keep things simple, we’ll transfer funds to the deposit address of the USDC faucet service on Sepolia. That address is 0x493A9869E3B5f846f72267ab19B76e9bf99d51b1.
Balance RequirementYou can transfer any amount you want, provided your account has sufficient balance to cover the transfer. To send funds externally, you will use the create account transfer endpoint.
Specify your blockchainBecause Circle’s APIs are designed for multiple chains and currencies, you must specify the currency and chain you want to utilize. You can create a transfer by using the command below.
REQUEST 
curl --request POST \
     --url https://api-sandbox.circle.com/v1/businessAccount/transfers \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'authorization: Bearer ${YOUR_API_KEY}' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
  "destination": {
    "type": "verified_blockchain",
    "addressId": "cfa01bb0-d166-5506-a48a-56f2beab559f"
  },
  "amount": {
    "currency": "USD",
    "amount": "3.14"
  },
  "idempotencyKey": "6ec3827d-15bb-442e-9d4c-32e73e61cbf4"
}
'
RESPONSE
JSON
{
  "data": {
    "id": "21fd4ec4-bad1-4eb2-9fc5-60320dedc7ea",
    "source": {
      "type": "wallet",
      "id": "1016875042"
    },
    "destination": {
      "type": "blockchain",
      "address": "0x493a9869e3b5f846f72267ab19b76e9bf99d51b1",
      "chain": "ETH"
    },
    "amount": {
      "amount": "3.14",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "status": "pending",
    "createDate": "2023-11-15T16:41:12.395Z"
  }
}

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5. Check the Status of the Transfer

You can use the get transfer endpoint to retrieve details about the status of the transaction. You can use it as in the command below.
REQUEST 
curl --request GET \
     --url https://api-sandbox.circle.com/v1/businessAccount/transfers/21fd4ec4-bad1-4eb2-9fc5-60320dedc7ea \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'authorization: Bearer ${YOUR_API_KEY}'
JavaScript Request
const options = {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    accept: 'application/json',
    authorization: 'Bearer ${YOUR_API_KEY}'
  }
};
RESPONSE
JSON
{
  "data": {
    "id": "21fd4ec4-bad1-4eb2-9fc5-60320dedc7ea",
    "source": {
      "type": "wallet",
      "id": "1016875042"
    },
    "destination": {
      "type": "blockchain",
      "address": "0x493a9869e3b5f846f72267ab19b76e9bf99d51b1",
      "chain": "ETH"
    },
    "amount": {
      "amount": "3.14",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "transactionHash": "0x0654eee4f609f9c35e376cef9455dd9fc1546c482c5c32c8f8d434ead14fcf97",
    "status": "complete",
    "createDate": "2023-11-15T16:41:12.395Z"
  }
}
Notes about the processThe first state transition for a transfer sets the status to created and the transactionHash to null. At this point Circle has just started processing the onchain send.When Circle broadcasts the transfer a few seconds later, its status will change to running. It will also display a transactionHash you can use to track the transfer onchain, which you can look up on Etherscan’s tracker on Sepolia.
Though not yet settled, you can consider the transaction complete because it has been successfully broadcast to the network. Circle’s systems will continue to track the transfer until it has reached finality, at which point its status will change to complete. 🎉 Congratulations. You have successfully sent cryptocurrency using Circle’s APIs.

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6. Ready for the next step?

After experimenting with our APIs, you’ll want to start building test integrations in sandbox prior to moving into production. Start by applying for a Circle Mint account. We’ll be happy to walk you through the next steps.