- Circle has launched Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain for payments and financial markets.
- It uses USDC for fees and offers sub-second settlement.
Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc, a new Layer 1 blockchain designed for financial markets, payments, tokenized assets and AI-driven economic activity. The network went live on September 16 with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders, including major banks, payment companies, exchanges, asset managers and DeFi platforms.
Arc is built around USDC and connects with Circle’s financial infrastructure, including Circle Payments Network and Circle StableFX. The network also provides tools for developers building applications for onchain finance.
Arc Uses USDC for Gas Fees
One of Arc’s main differences is its fee model. Users pay transaction fees in USDC rather than a separate volatile network token.
Circle also designed Arc to provide deterministic settlement in under one second. The network is fully EVM-compatible, allowing developers to use existing Solidity contracts and familiar Ethereum development tools.
Arc also supports tokenized financial products and stablecoins. Circle said USDC, EURC and tokenized real-world assets can operate on the network, while StableFX provides infrastructure for 24/7 cross-currency settlement.
Circle Payments Network is also integrated into Arc, allowing cross-border payments to settle in near real time. The company said its StableFX infrastructure supports a growing range of local stablecoins, giving applications access to programmable foreign-exchange settlement.
Arc Brings Institutional Finance Onchain
Circle launched Arc with a validator group that includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Global Payments.
More than 100 institutions and ecosystem builders are also involved across banking, asset management, payments, exchanges, custody, DeFi and blockchain infrastructure. Aave, Morpho and Uniswap are among the protocols supporting Arc at launch.
Circle said the network’s permissioned validator model is designed to meet the operational and compliance requirements of financial institutions while keeping Arc open to developers and businesses.
BlackRock’s Global Head of Digital Assets Robbie Mitchnick said purpose-built networks could help accelerate digital asset use cases, adding that Arc is designed around stablecoin and payment applications.
Arc Targets AI Agents and Automated Payments
Circle is also positioning Arc for an economy where AI agents can carry out financial tasks.
The company said agents already use its programmable payment products to execute trades, manage payments, route liquidity and execute contracts. USDC accounted for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume cited by Circle.
Arc integrates with Circle Agent Stack, which provides policy-controlled Agent Wallets and nanopayments through Circle Gateway. Arc Portal also allows users to fund agent wallets, set spending limits and delegate onchain tasks.
The company is developing AgentVM to let agents work with sensitive data while maintaining an immutable record that applications can use to verify results without exposing the underlying information.
Circle Mints 10 Billion ARC Tokens
Circle also confirmed that it completed the genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens in the United States this week.
However, the company has not committed to a public launch of the ARC token. Circle said ARC is designed as a future coordination mechanism for network security, utility and governance, while transaction fees will continue to be paid in USDC.
The mint is part of Circle’s longer-term plan to explore a transition from the current Proof of Authority model toward Proof of Stake in 2027.
Arc Roadmap Includes Privacy and Higher Throughput
Circle’s roadmap includes several network sectors aimed at different financial applications.
The planned Privacy Sector will support opt-in confidential transactions, while the Payment Sector targets more than 100,000 transactions per second for low-cost payments. A separate Agent Sector is planned for verifiable agent identities and auditable records.
Arc also supports post-quantum signatures today, with broader protections planned as development continues.
Circle said more than 75,000 people have joined Arc House and 10,000 Architect ambassadors have participated in the ecosystem. Developers have built more than 1,200 projects, while Arc’s testnet processed more than 700 million transactions in less than a year.
With the public mainnet now live, Circle is positioning Arc as infrastructure for stablecoin payments, institutional finance, tokenized assets, foreign exchange and AI-driven transactions on a single blockchain network.
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