Odaily News According to official news, Circle announced that its Circle Research has released the Refund Protocol, a smart contract that supports non-custodial custody and on-chain dispute resolution for stablecoin payments. It is built for the composability and transparency of on-chain commerce and supports lock-up periods, arbitrator-mediated refunds, and early withdrawals based on off-chain protocols. The refund protocol supports on-chain dispute resolution and USDC payment refunds without the custody or trust of centralized institutions.