Circle Deploys Billions on Arc Blockchain, Launches New Era of Fast Settlement
Circle has made a significant strategic pivot by launching its own Layer 1 blockchain, Arc. The company behind USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, deployed $649M in USDC and $7M in EURC on Arc just days after it launched its public mainnet on September 16, 2026.
Arc's key feature is that USDC is the native gas token, with transaction fees targeting around $0.01, denominated entirely in USDC. This means transactions settle almost instantly with no ambiguity about whether they went through. Traditional blockchains often have probabilistic finality, where a transaction becomes 'more confirmed' over time.
Circle has also integrated its StableFX product into Arc, which enables atomic foreign exchange settlement between different stablecoin pairs. The validator list includes prominent names like BlackRock, Visa, and Mastercard, with over 100 institutional participants spanning banks, asset managers, and DeFi protocols.