Circle officially launched its Arc Mainnet on September 16, 2026, describing the network as a general-purpose economic operating system for onchain finance and the most consequential platform launch in the company’s history. The launch moves Circle beyond its core $74 billion USDC stablecoin business and introduces a full-stack financial platform aimed at payments, tokenized markets, lending, trading and AI-agent commerce.
CEO Jeremy Allaire called the debut “the most consequential major platform launch” in Circle’s history, framing Arc as more than a blockchain: an open platform for global markets, real-time value movement, tokenized assets and agentic economic activity.
The network’s founding validator set includes BlackRock, DTCC, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, Standard Chartered and Visa, alongside Circle itself and other participants such as Galaxy, Global Payments, MoneyGram, SBI Group and Sumitomo Corporation. More than 100 institutions and ecosystem builders had already been active during Arc’s private-mainnet phase, and the public testnet opened on October 28, 2025. Circle reported more than 700 million testnet transactions processed before the launch.
Arc is designed for regulated financial use, with sub-second finality, predictable fees paid in USDC and configurable privacy. It is Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible, and USDC serves as the native gas token, meaning transaction costs are dollar-denominated rather than paid in a separate native crypto asset. Trading venues including Uniswap and Aerodrome and lending markets from Aave and Morpho were available from day one.
Circle also completed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens, but stressed that the token is not yet public. Arc currently operates under proof of authority, with a planned transition to proof of stake in 2027 that could give ARC roles in governance and security while network fees remain in USDC.
BlackRock’s BUIDL fund is expected to deploy on Arc, while tokenized money market funds such as USYC and BUIDL are joining the network. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s planned capability to tokenize DTC-custodied assets on Arc is targeted for the second half of 2027, placing some institutional integrations more than a year after the mainnet launch.
