Circle debuts Arc blockchain which Jeremy Allaire calls ‘more consequential’ than USDC

Circle has unveiled Arc, a blockchain it describes as an "economic operating system" for payments, tokenized financial markets, lending and trading. The network is intended to serve institutional use cases and launched with participation from a wide roster of traditional finance and payments firms. Circle said more than 100 institutions and ecosystem companies are either participating in or exploring the network. Arc departs from many consumer-focused chains by charging transaction fees in USDC rather than a volatile native token and by initially operating with a permissioned validator set. Founding validators named by Circle include BlackRock, DTCC, the Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, Standard Chartered and Visa. Circle also highlighted integration with its Circle Payments Network and StableFX foreign-exchange platform for 24/7 cross-currency settlement. The company completed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens but emphasized the token is not yet publicly available and that the mint does not commit Circle to a public launch. Arc currently runs on a proof-of-authority model; Circle said it is evaluating a transition to proof of stake in 2027 that could assign ARC roles in security, governance and utility while continuing to collect network fees in USDC. In May, Circle raised $222 million in a token presale valuing the network at $3 billion, with investors including Apollo Funds, ARK Invest and BlackRock. Circle framed Arc as a bridge between traditional finance and onchain markets, citing live or planned activity on the network such as trading venues (including Uniswap and Aerodrome), lending markets from Aave and Morpho, and tokenized money market funds like Circle’s USYC and BlackRock’s BUIDL. The company also said it is developing configurable privacy features for institutions that need to shield transaction data while keeping access for auditors and regulators. The launch comes amid intensifying competition in the stablecoin and tokenization space: a consortium of 21 financial institutions is working on a dollar stablecoin targeted for the first half of 2027, a European bank group is developing a euro token, and payments firms such as Stripe are advancing their own crypto projects. Circle described Arc as both a new business growth engine and a platform it intends to make widely available alongside other networks where USDC circulates.