Arc Mainnet Launches with Circle's Financial Powerhouse Validators
Circle's open layer 1 blockchain, Arc, has launched on its mainnet after over a year of testing. The network boasts more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders as validators, including major financial institutions like BlackRock, Visa, and Mastercard.
Arc is designed for financial markets and internet-native money movement, featuring $USDC-denominated gas fees, sub-second finality, and support for tokenized assets and stablecoins. It will also support $USDC, EURC, and tokenized real-world assets, with Circle StableFX providing 24/7 cross-currency settlement.
The network's day-one financial ecosystem includes trading platforms Aero, fomo, and Uniswap, as well as USYC, BUIDL, private credit funds, and cirBTC for assets that can be traded, lent, or used as collateral. Circle said its combination of a permissioned validator set, institutional participation, and privacy architecture allows banks, asset managers, and enterprises to use a public blockchain for activities such as treasury management, trading, and confidential payments.