Circle Unveils Arc Blockchain, Aims to Rival Traditional Financial Infrastructure
Circle has launched its Arc blockchain, a major push beyond issuing the $74 billion stablecoin USDC. The platform is designed to be a general-purpose 'economic operating system' for payments, tokenized financial markets, lending, trading, and commerce between AI agents.
Arc has attracted a wide roster of heavyweight institutions as founding validators, including BlackRock, DTCC, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, and Visa. Over 100 institutions and ecosystem companies are already live on or exploring the network.
Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire described Arc as 'the most consequential major platform launch in our history' and even more significant than USDC itself. He emphasized that the chain addresses some of the friction that has kept traditional financial institutions from using existing blockchains, including configurable privacy for institutions that need to shield transaction data.
Transaction fees are paid in USDC rather than a native token, with sub-second finality and a permissioned validator set. The platform will also support interoperability with other blockchain ecosystems through Circle's infrastructure.