Circle Unleashes Own Blockchain, Arc, with Wall Street Powerhouses as Validators
Circle is launching its own blockchain, called Arc, on September 16, 2026. This move comes after a decade of convincing Wall Street to trust USDC, and now Circle is asking those same institutions to run nodes on its new blockchain.
The founding validators for Arc include BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, ICE, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, Global Payments, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Sumitomo Corporation, and Global Payments. These institutions are committing their infrastructure to a stablecoin company's chain, making it the most institutionally backed genesis cohort in blockchain history.
Circle is building its own chain because it wants to capture value from USDC transactions that settle on other networks. Currently, Circle captures zero value from these settlements, as gas fees go to ETH stakers and MEV goes to searchers. With Arc, every transaction fee will be denominated in dollars, not in a volatile network asset.
The Arc token presale raised $222 million at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation, led by a16z crypto with participation from BlackRock, Apollo, and ARK Invest. The validator list includes some of the biggest names in traditional finance, including DTCC, which will tokenize DTC-custodied assets on Arc starting in 2027.