Circle Launches Arc Mainnet with Major Financial Institutions as Validators

Circle has announced the launch of its Arc mainnet, a dedicated layer 1 blockchain designed for financial markets and internet-native money movement. The network went live with more than 100 institutional validators, including notable names such as BlackRock, Visa, and Mastercard, alongside over 100 applications.

Arc is built to facilitate USDC-denominated gas fees, sub-second finality, and support for tokenized assets and stablecoins. It will enable transactions in USDC and EURC, while also integrating Circle StableFX for cross-currency settlements and Circle Payments Network for near-real-time cross-border payments. The network is also developing opt-in privacy features for confidential transactions.

Among the initial applications on the Arc mainnet are Aero, fomo, and Uniswap, with additional projects like USYC and cirBTC available for trading and lending. Circle aims to leverage a permissioned validator set to allow banks and asset managers to utilize a public blockchain for treasury management and trading activities.

Arc's infrastructure is also designed to accommodate AI agents as economic participants, with USDC accounting for the vast majority of agent-driven transaction volume. The network has already processed over 700 million transactions during its test phases and is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Circle has minted an initial supply of 10 billion ARC tokens, which are intended to support governance and network security, although a public distribution plan has yet to be confirmed. The mainnet launch marks the first phase of a broader roadmap that includes plans for proof of stake and enhanced scalability by 2027.