Circle Launches Arc Mainnet With USDC as Native Gas and Institutional Validators
It signals a push to bring bank-grade settlement and fast stablecoin payments onto public blockchains.
Overview
- Circle, which launched Arc on Wednesday, executed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens while saying the mint is not a commitment to a public ARC sale.
- The live network makes USDC the native gas token to remove a volatile fee currency and deliver deterministic sub-second settlement for payments, trading, lending, and tokenized assets.
- A permissioned founding validator cohort that includes BlackRock, the DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, ICE and major banks was deployed to support institutional settlement and governance on day one.
- Arc opened with more than 100 apps and institutional builders plus broad custody, wallet and exchange integrations, and it offers support for 20+ fiat stablecoins and bridges to 20+ chains through Circle’s CCTP.
- Security features including optional post-quantum signatures remain under development, Circle reported a $222 million presale valuing Arc at $3 billion, and Circle’s stock fell roughly 7 percent on the day of launch, signaling investor scrutiny of governance and rollout risks.