Circle launched Arc’s public mainnet on September 16, bringing its stablecoin-focused Layer 1 into production with USDC transaction fees, sub-second finality and more than 100 applications available on day one.
Arc is built for financial markets, real-time payments, foreign exchange, tokenized assets and automated transactions involving AI agents. The network moves from a private mainnet that included more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders into a public environment accessible to developers and users.
USDC Pays Gas Across Arc
Arc uses USDC as its gas asset, allowing transaction fees to remain dollar-denominated instead of requiring users to acquire a separate volatile token. Its consensus design provides deterministic sub-second settlement, while the network remains compatible with Ethereum’s EVM and existing Solidity tooling.
Circle has integrated USDC, EURC, Circle Payments Network and its broader stablecoin infrastructure directly into Arc. StableFX adds 24/7 programmable foreign-exchange settlement across supported stablecoins, while tokenized assets including Circle’s USYC and BlackRock’s BUIDL are part of the initial financial ecosystem.
Aero, fomo and Uniswap are providing day-one trading infrastructure, while Aave and Morpho are launching lending markets. Pump.fun, Robinhood, 1inch and Hibachi are among the other trading and liquidity platforms working with the network.
Circle’s Arc expansion follows a $222 million ARC presale earlier this year as the company moved deeper into the execution layer supporting stablecoin payments and tokenized finance.
BlackRock, DTCC and Card Networks Secure Arc
Arc launches with a permissioned validator cohort drawn heavily from traditional finance. BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, are participating alongside Circle in the network rollout.
Banks and financial institutions building around Arc include BNY, HSBC, Societe Generale, State Street and Standard Chartered. Asset managers and tokenization providers include BlackRock, Bitwise, Janus Henderson, ProShares, Centrifuge and xStocks.
The public launch follows more than 700 million transactions on Arc’s testnet in under a year. Circle said developers have built more than 1,200 projects across the ecosystem, while wallets including MetaMask, Phantom, Ledger, Rainbow and Trust Wallet support access to the network.
Circle Mints 10 Billion ARC Tokens
Circle also completed the genesis mint of ARC this week, creating the full initial supply of 10 billion tokens.
ARC is designed to coordinate network security, governance and utility as Arc moves toward a planned proof-of-stake model. Transaction fees remain payable in USDC rather than ARC.
Arc currently operates through its permissioned validator structure, with Circle targeting a transition from proof of authority toward proof of stake in 2027. Public distribution of the newly minted ARC supply has not been scheduled.
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