Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc, its new Layer 1 blockchain built around USDC and designed for financial applications.
The mainnet went live on Sept. 16 with USDC used as the network’s gas asset. Circle says Arc can provide deterministic settlement in less than one second and supports Ethereum Virtual Machine applications, allowing developers to use Solidity and familiar Ethereum tools.
Before the public launch, Arc’s testnet processed more than 700 million transactions. Circle had reported 502 million testnet transactions and 2.8 million transacting wallets by the end of June, showing strong activity before the mainnet opened.
Arc is designed to make large financial transactions easier to process without requiring users to hold a separate volatile token for gas. Transaction fees are paid in USDC, and Circle says the network is designed to keep costs predictable as activity changes.
Arc also uses a permissioned Proof-of-Authority system at launch. Its EVM compatibility means developers can move Ethereum-based applications and tools to the network without having to build everything from scratch.
The network is connected to Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol and Circle Gateway. These systems allow assets and liquidity to move between Arc and more than 20 supported blockchain networks.
Arc launched with 11 institutional founding validators. They include BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Worldpay.
Other financial companies involved with the Arc ecosystem include BNY, BTG Pactual, HSBC, Lead Bank, Societe Generale and State Street. Payment companies such as Mastercard, MoneyGram, Visa, JCB, Global Payments and Thunes are also part of the ecosystem.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called Arc the company’s most important product launch since USDC, describing USDC as the first step and Arc as the network built for the next stage of its strategy.
Arc also launched with more than 20 fiat-backed stablecoins. The day-one list includes 22 stablecoins linked to currencies such as the U.S. dollar, euro, Australian dollar, British pound, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar and others.
Circle StableFX is also available on Arc for programmable foreign-exchange transactions. The service is designed to support payment-versus-payment settlement using stablecoins and liquidity from participating market makers.
Several tokenized financial products are available on the network from launch. These include BlackRock’s BUIDL, Circle’s USYC, and Janus Henderson’s JAAA and JTRSY products.
However, access to some products remains restricted. For example, Circle says USYC is currently available only to non-U.S. persons under its Securities Act definition, along with other eligibility requirements.
Circle has also introduced cirBTC, a programmable representation of Bitcoin. The company says it can be converted 1:1 from BTC, cbBTC or WBTC without conversion fees and is designed for uses such as collateral and liquidity.
Aave and Morpho are supporting lending markets on Arc, while Aero and Uniswap provide trading infrastructure. Several exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, Kraken, KuCoin, OKX and Upbit, are listed as live access points. Coinbase is expected to become available later.
Circle is also building Arc around automated software transactions and so-called agent wallets. Circle Agent Stack provides policy-controlled wallets and USDC nanopayments, while Arc Portal lets users create wallets, set spending limits and authorize specific financial tasks.
Arc Studio is designed to use natural-language prompts to help create application components and smart contracts for deployment on the network.
Circle also offers Arc App Kits for developers. These include tools for bringing users from fiat into USDC and connecting applications to lending services such as Morpho.
Privacy features are still being developed. Circle says opt-in privacy is in development for a wider network release. The company has also proposed confidential smart-contract technology for institutional use, although its scope and rollout plans can still change.
Arc also supports optional post-quantum signatures, according to Circle. Further protections remain under development, and the company says quantum-resistant technology is still an evolving area of research.
Alongside the mainnet launch, Circle created 10 billion ARC tokens through a genesis mint in the United States.
However, Circle has not launched ARC publicly. The company says the mint does not mean it has committed to a public token launch.
The ARC token is being considered as a future asset for network security, governance and other functions if Arc eventually moves from Proof of Authority to Proof of Stake. Circle currently points to 2027 as a period for exploring that transition, but the timing and final design can still change.
The lack of a public ARC launch is separate from Circle’s existing private token-sale agreements. According to its June 30 filing, Circle agreed to sell 807.5 million ARC tokens to institutional investors at $0.30 each, representing about $242.2 million in contracted proceeds.
Circle had received $222 million from the private sale by June 30 and recorded the money as deferred revenue. The sale implied a fully diluted network valuation of about $3 billion.
Investors in the initial round included a16z crypto, BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest, ICE, Janus Henderson and Standard Chartered Ventures.
The private-sale tokens are subject to lockup and transfer restrictions. Circle’s filings say the restrictions include at least a one-year lockup after Arc moves to Proof of Stake or delegated Proof of Stake, with additional restrictions potentially lasting for several more years.
Arc is now publicly available, but several parts of its long-term design, including the ARC token launch and possible move to Proof of Stake, remain subject to future decisions and changes.
