Don't want to trade it yourself?
Our desk runs DEX portfolios on profit share.
Add preferred source
Circle, the U.S. issuer of the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC, launched the public mainnet of its proprietary Layer-1 blockchain “Arc” on September 16. The defining feature is the ability to pay network fees (gas) in USDC, eliminating the need to hold a separate token for transaction costs. Validators will be selected by Circle for the foreseeable future, with founding members including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, and SBI Group. The chain has been running in a private environment since May, reaching a block height of approximately 21.1 million at launch, with ERC-20 transfer fees of roughly 0.0013 USDC. Exchange withdrawal support will take time to materialize, and for now, moving funds via CCTP will be the primary route.
Key Elements
Circle, the issuer of the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC, publicly launched the mainnet of its proprietary Layer-1 blockchain “Arc” on September 16. The defining feature is that network fees (gas) can be paid in USDC.
On most Ethereum-compatible chains, even if a user holds USDC for transfers, they must maintain a separate token to pay transaction fees. Arc is designed so that both the transfer amount and fees can be covered from the same USDC balance, eliminating the cumbersome need for this “dual asset reserve.”
Transaction finality is designed to be under one second. In actual measurements, the average block interval was 0.5 seconds. When the chain was queried directly on launch morning, the block height stood at approximately 21.1 million, the base fee was 20 Gwei, and the fee for an ERC-20 token transfer was calculated at roughly 0.0013 USDC. This is in line with Circle’s stated target of “approximately $0.001 per transfer under normal conditions” in its documentation.
Arc’s genesis block timestamp is May 12, 2026, meaning the chain has been operating in a private environment for several months. As of August, more than 100 ecosystem and institutional investor developers were reportedly participating in the private network. The public launch is not a from-scratch debut but rather the opening of a chain that had been running in a closed environment to the general public.
While development is open to anyone, validators who verify transactions will continue to be selected by Circle for the time being. Founding members include BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, and SBI Group. The transition from a proof-of-authority model to a staking-based model remains a roadmap item, so those hoping for open validator participation will find it premature.
In addition to USDC, the euro-pegged stablecoin EURC is also deployed on Arc. At launch, the circulating supply on Arc was approximately 373.8 million USDC and about 5.55 million EURC, with dollar-denominated assets dominating by an overwhelming margin.
Technical Points to Verify Before Transferring Funds
When manually adding Arc to a wallet, the required network information is as follows:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Network Name | Arc |
| Chain ID | 5042 |
| RPC Endpoint | https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io |
| Currency Symbol | USDC |
Note: The chain ID is an identifier embedded in transaction signatures. A single-digit error can cause transfers to fail silently. In actual testing, the mainnet’s eth_chainId call returned 0x13b2 in hexadecimal (5042 in decimal), confirming that the documentation matches the live network.
Caution is needed when viewing gas balances. Arc performs gas calculations using the EVM standard of 18 decimal places, while the USDC token itself uses 6 decimal places. As a result, some wallets may display the balance as “ETH” or show a different number of decimal places. This is a display issue and does not indicate any problem with the underlying assets.
Additionally, explorer.arc.io, which is designated as the official block explorer, was redirecting to a Cloudflare Access authentication screen as of launch day, meaning general users could not freely browse transactions. To confirm transaction arrival for now, users will need to query the chain directly through the RPC endpoint.
Exchange Support and Moving Funds
The launch of Arc does not impose any immediate obligations on existing USDC holders. If you hold USDC on an exchange or on Ethereum, the addition of a new chain does not change your holdings in any way.
However, it will take time before Arc appears in exchange withdrawal menus. Each exchange must independently connect, test, and enable the new chain, which typically takes weeks to months. If you are considering a direct withdrawal to Arc, you should first check whether Arc is included in the network list on your exchange’s withdrawal screen.
While exchanges are not yet supporting Arc, moving USDC to the chain will require using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). CCTP employs a burn-and-mint mechanism, where USDC is burned on theation chain
This is fundamentally different from traditional bridges that pool deposits and issue wrapped tokens. With pool-based bridges, if the pool is drained in an attack, the wrapped tokens become worthless. CCTP has no pool that can be targeted in the first place.
CCTP identifies chains using its own “domain” numbers rather than chain IDs, and Arc has been assigned domain 26. On Arc, the TokenMessenger contract is 0x28b5a0e9C621a5BadaA536219b3a228C8168cf5d, and the MessageTransmitter is 0x81D40F21F12A8F0E3252Bccb954D722d4c464B64. If a bridge interface displays a different domain or contract address, you should stop and cross-reference against the documentation.
Positioning in the Stablecoin Market
As of the end of June, the circulating supply of USDC stood at $73.3 billion (approximately ¥11.4 trillion), while Tether’s USDT was at $184.6 billion (approximately ¥28.8 trillion) — the gap between the two remains substantial. The launch of Arc alone will not generate net new demand if existing USDC simply moves from other chains. The key question going forward is whether Arc can attract new capital into the USDC ecosystem.
There is currently no native network token that can be freely traded on Arc. Circle has documented only USDC as the gas token and has not officially announced any airdrops or token distributions for retail investors. While there have been reports since spring about adjustment assets for validators and governance, Circle itself has stated its position as “under consideration.”
In the immediate aftermath of a new chain launch, fraudulent websites promising free token distributions tend to proliferate. Pages asking for wallet connections, signatures, or approvals are highly likely to be baseless. It is safest not to connect your main wallet and to verify announcements through the issuer’s official channels.
Optional privacy features are still in the planning stage and are not currently available. Arc adopts EIP-1559 while incorporating a fee model with a smoothing step using a weighted moving average that gives greater weight to recent blocks. The base fee is designed to fluctuate within a range of 20 Gwei at the lower bound and 20,000 Gwei at the upper bound.
Once added, BigGo Finance appears first in Google Search Top Stories, so you get the broadest, most up-to-the-minute, and most comprehensive global financial news first.
Source: finance.biggo.com