Circle launches Arc mainnet with BlackRock and Visa as validators

Circle Internet Group is launching Arc, its own Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for financial markets, real-time money transfers and economic activity by AI agents. The blockchain goes live with more than a hundred applications and more than a hundred institutional parties on the first day, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard and the DTCC as founding validators. Circle is using its own stablecoin USDC as the means of payment for transaction fees on the network.

In brief:

• Circle is launching Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain for financial markets with major institutions as validators.
• Arc uses USDC for transaction fees and offers settlement within one second.
• Circle is minting 10 billion ARC tokens, but says it has not yet made a definitive decision about a public token issuance.

Institutional validators and direct integration with USDC

Arc is fully integrated into Circle’s platform, including USDC, which currently has more than $74 billion in circulation. The blockchain offers transaction finality within one second and has been designed without a volatile native token for paying fees: that simply happens in USDC.

The group of founding validators, alongside BlackRock and Visa, also includes DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Worldpay. These parties not only participate as users, but also actively contribute to the operation and security of the network. Robbie Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, states that Arc appears clearly well positioned for stablecoin and payment applications at large scale.

Major banks such as BNY, HSBC, Societe Generale and State Street are also involved in the launch. According to Circle, they have been attracted by the fact that Arc meets the requirements set by banks and regulators, such as a controlled validator model and clearly defined governance.

Designed for AI agents and cross-border payments

A striking feature of Arc is its built-in support for economic activity by AI agents. Circle states that USDC already accounts for 98.8% of the transaction volume generated by agents, and that Arc is the first blockchain that takes account of agents as economic participants from the ground up.

In addition, Circle StableFX is built in, a system for programmable foreign exchange transactions that is available 24/7 and supports several local stablecoins, including EURC, JPYC and BRLA. Circle Payments Network is also directly integrated into Arc, enabling cross-border payments to be settled for a fraction of a cent and in virtually real time.

CEO Jeremy Allaire describes Arc as the most important thing Circle has ever launched after USDC itself. According to him, the onchain economy and the agentic economy are not two separate developments, but two sides of the same reality, and both need infrastructure that never closes and settles within a second.

10 billion ARC tokens minted, no promise of a public issue

At the genesis of the network, Circle minted 10 billion ARC tokens. The company makes clear that this does not constitute a commitment to a public token issuance. How and whether these tokens will ultimately become available to a broader public has not yet been decided.

Arc also supports post-quantum signatures and offers optional privacy features for confidential transactions, a functionality that is still in development for broader roll-out across the network.