Arc's Blockchain Launch Swamped by Memecoin Speculation

Arc, the blockchain developed by Circle for institutional use, launched on Wednesday to process payment and stablecoin transactions. However, its first day saw network congestion due to speculative memecoin activity rather than the intended institutional payments.

The platform processed 7.83 million transactions in its first 24 hours, but nearly all of them were driven by memecoins, not traditional institutional use. This was reflected in the fact that the lifetime total of USDC transfers on the network remained at approximately 624,000.

Tokens such as TOLLY, LONG, and COOL experienced significant drops in value after launching, with TOLLY falling 56%, LONG plummeting 77%, and COOL dropping 75%. This has led some investors to criticize the network's first-day activity.