Malignant melanoma is the most fatal type of skin tumor. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been implicated in the malignant progression of melanoma. The main purpose of this paper was to identify the precise parts of circ_0079593 in the malignant progression of melanoma. The levels of circ_0079593, miR-573 and abhydrolase domain containing 2 (ABHD2) were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot. Cell proliferation, colony formation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, migration, and invasion were evaluated using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, flow cytometry, and transwell assays, respectively. Targeted correlations among circ_0079593, miR-573 and ABHD2 were confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and RNA pull-down assays. Animal studies were performed to assess the role of circ_0079593 in vivo. Our data showed that circ_0079593 level was up-regulated in melanoma tissues and cells. The knockdown of circ_0079593 suppressed cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, migration, invasion, and enhanced apoptosis in vitro and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, circ_0079593 directly targeted miR-573, and circ_0079593 controlled ABHD2 expression by miR-573. MiR-573 mediated the regulation of circ_0079593 on melanoma cell progression in vitro. Moreover, ABHD2 was a functional target of miR-573 in regulating melanoma cell progression in vitro. Our findings identified that the knockdown of circ_0079593 suppressed melanoma progression at least partially through targeting the miR-573/ABHD2 axis, providing evidence for developing circ_0079593 as a promising therapeutic target for melanoma treatment. Copyright © 2021 Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.