Circle has launched Layer 1 blockchain Arc for stablecoin payments and other financial transactions. More than hundred institutions are already testing the new network.
The public Arc Mainnet went live on September 16. The company reported more than 100 applications at launch. There are also more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders involved. The founding validator cohort includes BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, ICE, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, SBI Group, MoneyGram, Galaxy, and Worldpay (now Global Payments). These globally known firms, among others, will help operate the network, not simply connect to it.
Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle, said in the company’s official announcement that Arc is the single most significant launch in Circle’s history since USDC itself. He described the network as an attempt to build infrastructure that never closes, settles in under a second, and is trusted by institutions anchoring the global financial system.
“USDC was step one. Arc is the network built for what comes next. The agentic economy and the onchain economy are not two different revolutions; they are the same economy seen from two sides, and both need infrastructure that never closes, settles in under a second, and is trusted by the institutions that anchor the global financial system. Today we are switching on something the world has never had before: an open, neutral, always-on economic operating system for the internet, secured by some of the most important financial institutions on Earth, and built for a world where both people and machines transact.”
How the network works
Arc’s design centers on a handful of features aimed at financial institutions rather than retail crypto users. Transactions settle with sub-second, deterministic finality, meaning a completed transaction cannot be reversed or re-ordered once confirmed. The network also supports opt-in privacy, letting institutions keep transaction details confidential while retaining an audit trail. This feature is still in development for network-wide release.
A validator is an entity that verifies and confirms transactions on the network. Arc’s validator set is permissioned, made up of the founding institutions rather than open to anonymous participants, which is intended to meet bank-level compliance requirements. Arc is also fully compatible with Ethereum’s existing developer tools, so applications built for other Ethereum-based chains can run on Arc without being rewritten from scratch.
The network integrates with Circle’s existing platform as well, including USDC and EURC, and a new feature called StableFX, which is live and offers 24/7 cross-currency settlement between more than 20 regional stablecoins. Circle Payments Network is also natively integrated into Arc for cross-border transfers. Network fees on Arc are paid in USDC rather than a separate native token.
For builders, Circle introduced Arc Studio, a coding tool that generates smart contracts and application code, and Arc App Kits, a software development kit for adding payments, swaps, and yield features to applications.
Circle also completed the genesis mint of its ARC token this week, creating an initial supply of 10 billion tokens. The company said this is a technical milestone rather than a commitment to a public token launch, as Arc explores a shift from its current consensus model toward proof of stake in 2027.
Regulation still catching up
The launch comes as U.S. crypto market-structure legislation remains unresolved. The CLARITY Act, which would clarify how digital assets are classified and regulated, passed the House of Representatives in late 2025 but has stalled in the Senate Banking Committee amid disputes over stablecoin interest payments and officials’ crypto-holding ethics. Arc’s launch is a reminder that crypto infrastructure is racing ahead of regulation, with major institutions building and operating live networks before Congress settles the rules governing them.
