Overview
- Circle launched its Arc mainnet on Wednesday, engaging over 100 institutional and ecosystem partners from day one.
- Key founding validators include BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered, and SBI Group.
- This week, Circle minted 10 billion ARC tokens, although it clarified this does not signal an immediate public launch.
Circle has officially launched Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain designed for payments, trading, and various "agentic economic activities," as of Wednesday.
Jeremy Allaire, the CEO, described the event as "the most significant launch in Circle's history since the inception of USDC" in a press statement. Currently, the USDC stablecoin circulates with approximately $74 billion and serves as the gas token for the new blockchain.
The founding group of Arc includes prominent companies such as BlackRock, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo, Visa, Worldpay, and Galaxy. Circle promotes its permissioned validator model as an attractive feature, claiming it enables banks to utilize a public chain for treasury management, trading, and secure payments.
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This week, Circle finalized the genesis mint of ARC, producing all 10 billion tokens and marking it as the first publicly traded firm to mint a network token for a new Layer 1 blockchain. However, the company emphasized that the mint does not imply a commitment to a public launch of ARC, viewing it instead as a preliminary step towards a potential transition from proof of authority to proof of stake in 2027.
Previously, Circle had secured $222 million in an Arc token presale, achieving a valuation of $3 billion.
Several banks including BNY, HSBC, Societe Generale, and State Street are among those with access; lending is anchored by Aave and Morpho; trading is facilitated by Uniswap, Aero, and fomo, with Binance, Kraken, Bybit, and OKX providing entry points, and Coinbase expected to follow. BlackRock's BUIDL and Circle's USYC contribute tokenized collateral in the markets.
According to Circle, USDC represents 98.8% of transaction volume driven by agents, based on data from Dune, and Arc includes features such as agent wallets, spending limits, and nanopayments.
Arc also offers optional post-quantum signatures, with additional protective measures currently under development. Circle states that its testnet, which began last year with contributions from BlackRock and Visa, has successfully processed over 700 million transactions within a year.