Circle Launches Arc Mainnet With USDC Fees and Wall Street Validators

Summary

• Circle launched Arc with USDC fees, sub-second settlement, and institutional validators supporting payments, trading, and tokenized assets worldwide.
• Arc supports AI agents through controlled wallets, nanopayments, and delegated tasks, while major platforms provide liquidity and lending services.
• Circle minted ten billion ARC tokens as a technical milestone while planning proof-of-stake, privacy upgrades, and greater payment network capacity.

Circle Internet Group has publicly launched Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain designed for financial markets, payments, and automated economic activity. According to Circle, Arc begins operations with more than 100 applications and over 100 institutional and ecosystem builders.

Its founding validators include BlackRock, Mastercard, Visa, DTCC, ICE, MoneyGram, Standard Chartered, SBI Group, and Worldpay. Arc uses USDC for transaction fees, removing the requirement for users to acquire a volatile native token.

Moreover, the network provides settlement within one second, offering predictable execution for payments and institutional market operations. Circle Payments Network connects directly with Arc, enabling inexpensive cross-border transfers that settle almost instantly. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive, described Arc as the company’s most significant launch since USDC.

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Arc Supports Institutional Finance and Automated Economic Activity

Arc supports agents that manage payments, execute trades, route liquidity, and complete authorized financial tasks for businesses globally. Circle reports that USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume processed through the x402 payment standard.

Additionally, Circle Agent Stack provides controlled wallets, nanopayments, and marketplace functions for developers creating automated financial applications. Arc Portal lets users fund agent wallets, establish spending limits, delegate tasks, and monitor activity through one interface.

Institutional participation extends beyond validators, with banks, exchanges, custodians, asset managers, payment companies, and wallet providers supporting Arc. Furthermore, Aave and Morpho support Arc’s lending markets, while Uniswap, Aero, and fomo provide initial trading infrastructure.

Arc also accommodates tokenized assets, including Circle’s USYC, BlackRock’s BUIDL, private credit instruments, and tokenized Bitcoin. Its testnet processed over 700 million transactions within one year, while developers created more than 1,200 projects.  Arc supports Ethereum tools, so developers can deploy existing Solidity contracts without extensively rebuilding their applications.

ARC Token Mint Supports Planned Proof-of-Stake Transition

Separately, Circle minted ten billion ARC tokens as a technical milestone supporting possible security, governance, and network utility. However, Circle clarified that the mint does not guarantee a public ARC token release.

The roadmap covers proof-of-stake adoption, broader privacy protections, specialized network sectors, and capacity above 100,000 transactions per second. Circle plans a possible proof-of-stake transition during 2027, while USDC will remain Arc’s currency for network fees.

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