Arc Loses Steam Before Launch: Will Meme Coins Miss the Mark?
Circle's Arc network is set to launch its public mainnet on September 16, but analysts are questioning whether it will follow in the footsteps of Robinhood Chain and experience a meme coin frenzy. SoSoValue argues that this is unlikely due to structural differences between the two platforms.
The key difference lies in the validator sets: Robinhood Chain's consists of retail traders, while Arc's includes regulated institutions like Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, DTCC, Circle itself, and seven others. These validators have more to lose reputationally from hosting meme speculation than they'd gain in fees.
Arc's distribution channels also run through card networks and asset managers rather than retail traders, which makes a meme rally harder to start and easier to unwind compared to Robinhood Chain. Crypto analyst Adam Cochran bluntly called Arc 'a private consortium chain with preapproved validators' rather than a real layer 1.
While SoSoValue didn't dismiss the possibility outright, it notes that Arc is EVM-compatible and Uniswap v4 and Aerodrome are launching on it on day one. However, any meme rally on Arc would be harder to start and easier to unwind than what happened on Robinhood Chain.
Robinhood Chain's own boom has already cooled down, with daily revenue falling from a peak of $4 million to $1.06 million by the end of last week, an 83% drop. This came as gas prices collapsed once meme congestion eased and a 90-day fee subsidy nears its September 29 expiration.