Arc Mainnet Launches with 190+ Builders, Sub-Second Finality, and Traditional Finance Validators

Circle's Arc mainnet has officially gone live on September 16. The platform aims to be an 'Economic OS for the internet' and targets payments, capital markets, tokenized assets, and AI agents that move money. With over 190 institutional and ecosystem builders already working across the network, Arc launches as a full-stack financial platform with assets, applications, and Circle's platform services already running.

The core design of Arc removes frictions that keep institutions off public chains by paying network fees in USDC instead of a volatile native token. This allows treasury teams to forecast transaction costs in dollars. Additionally, Arc delivers deterministic sub-second finality, which payments and securities settlement require.

Circle has secured the network alongside 11 founding validators from traditional finance, including BlackRock, Visa, and Standard Chartered. The validator lineup spans several roles: asset managers and market infrastructure, card networks and payments, banks and conglomerates, and digital asset firms.