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Circle launches Arc mainnet for institutional finance | The Paypers
NewsCrypto, Web3 and CBDC
Circle launches Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain for institutions
Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain for institutional finance, with BlackRock, Mastercard, and Visa among its founding validators.
Arc is designed to integrate natively with Circle’s existing infrastructure, including USDC, which has more than USD 74 billion in circulation. An initial group of eleven founding validators – BlackRock, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa, and Worldpay (now Global Payments) – will help operate the network rather than simply connect to it.
Platform design and capabilities
Arc’s transaction fees are payable in USDC rather than a separate native token, and the network is built for sub-second, deterministic settlement. It includes an opt-in privacy feature based on confidential transactions and view keys, which remains under development ahead of a wider release. The network supports post-quantum signatures and is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, allowing existing Solidity-based contracts and developer tools to operate without modification.
Circle StableFX, a cross-currency settlement service, is built into Arc to support programmable foreign exchange trading, alongside regional stablecoins including EURC. Circle Payments Network has also been integrated, aimed at enabling cross-border payments that settle in near real time at low cost. Trading infrastructure at launch includes the decentralised platforms Aero, fomo, and Uniswap, supported by tokenised assets such as Circle’s USYC money market fund and the BUIDL treasury fund, tokenised by Securitize.
Agentic economy and developer tools
Circle has positioned Arc as infrastructure for software agents conducting financial transactions, building on the Circle Agent Stack launched in May 2026. The company states that USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume recorded to date. Arc includes Agent Wallets, a nanopayments function via Circle Gateway, and Arc Portal, which allows users to set spending limits and delegate tasks to agents. Alongside the mainnet, Circle introduced two developer tools: Arc Studio, an onchain coding agent for generating smart contracts and application code, and Arc App Kits, a software development kit for adding payment, swap, and yield functions to applications.
Participants live on or testing Arc span global banks, asset managers, payment networks, digital asset exchanges, custody providers, and decentralised finance protocols. Circle’s testnet processed more than 700 million transactions in under a year ahead of the public launch.
Roadmap
Circle has completed the genesis mint of the ARC token, creating an initial supply of ten billion tokens, which the company describes as a technical milestone rather than a commitment to a public token launch. Circle said Arc is expected to move from a proof-of-authority to a proof-of-stake consensus model in 2027, alongside further development of dedicated network sectors for privacy, payments, and agent-related activity.
Keywords:product launchblockchainstablecoindigital assetsstablecoin payments
Countries:United States of America
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