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Standard deposits wait for source chain finality, which can take 15 minutes or longer. Fast deposits use CCTP’s Fast Transfer to credit the destination in seconds while the source settles in the background. They are opt-in: pass config: { transferSpeed: "FAST" } with to. Omitting it fails validation rather than falling back to a slower deposit.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you’ve: These are required so any example below runs with a valid kit and adapter.

Supported blockchains

The following blockchains support a fast transfer as the source or destination.
This list differs from Unified Balance’s supported blockchains: some sources are not full deposit blockchains, and only a subset of Unified Balance blockchains are fast deposit destinations. For chain identifiers used in code, see Chain identifiers.

Optional: set an allowance in advance

A fast deposit uses the TokenMessengerWithFees contract to spend the deposit amount and forwarder fee from your wallet. If the remaining USDC allowance is too low, the kit submits an approval transaction and waits for it to be mined before it submits the burn transaction. To remove that wait from the deposit path, set an allowance before you estimate and execute the deposit. The allowance applies only to the same signing wallet and source blockchain. Each fast deposit consumes part of it, so the optimization lasts only while the remaining allowance covers the deposit amount plus the forwarder fee. All supported EVM source blockchains share the same address in an environment: Approval isn’t part of the Unified Balance API. This example uses a user-controlled EVM adapter on Ethereum Sepolia:
TypeScript
maxUint256 grants the largest possible uint256 USDC allowance. Later fast deposits from the same wallet and source blockchain can skip the approval wait. The allowance stays active until you change or revoke it. Use a bounded amount if you want to limit how much USDC the contract can spend.
Pre-approving moves the approval cost earlier; it doesn’t remove the cost. If you use a developer-controlled adapter, also include its wallet address in the prepareAction context.

Estimate fees before depositing

Fast deposits carry two fees:
  • Gas fee: the cost to submit the source transaction. Paid in the source blockchain’s native token, such as ETH.
  • Forwarder fee: charged in USDC from your source chain wallet on top of the deposit amount. Your wallet needs deposit + fee available; the full deposit amount arrives on the destination chain.
Use estimateDeposit to preview fees before committing. The returned quote locks in the forwarder fee, preventing fee changes from affecting your deposit. For broader fee estimation guidance, see Estimate spend fees.
TypeScript
The gas fee estimate may differ from the actual fee due to network conditions at execution time. Review the estimate before proceeding.

Execute the fast deposit

Pass the estimate object into deposit() to reuse the locked fee quote. If you omit the quote, the kit fetches a fresh one. If a supplied quote expired, deposit() throws an error. Call estimateDeposit() again and pass the new estimate without changing its quoted fields.
TypeScript
allowanceStrategy cannot be used with the to parameter. Fast deposits manage USDC approval internally. A fast finality source blockchain (for example Avalanche or Polygon PoS) is rejected rather than silently falling back to a standard deposit. Use a supported source instead.

Deposit for another account

depositFor is permissionless. Any wallet can fund another account’s Unified Balance. Estimate first, then pass the same to and config fields as deposit:
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Handle the deposit result

Circle’s relayer runs in the background. deposit() returns a progress field alongside the transaction details:
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PENDING doesn’t confirm that the source transaction succeeded. Check the source txHash before you act. Don’t submit another deposit while its receipt is pending or after the receipt succeeds. For receipt, polling, and recovery guidance, see Troubleshoot Unified Balance deposits.
Example result shape:
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