Circle Unveils Arc Blockchain with Institutional Heavyweights on Board

Circle is preparing to launch Arc, a USDC-native Layer 1 blockchain, on September 16, 2026. The network will be designed specifically for institutional payments, settlements, and tokenized financial assets.

The launch coincides with the U.S. Senate cloture vote on the CLARITY Act, a major piece of proposed cryptocurrency legislation, which could potentially impact the regulatory environment for digital assets in the United States.

Arc's founding validators include prominent institutions such as BlackRock, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Visa, Mastercard, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Galaxy, Global Payments, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, and Sumitomo Corporation. These validators will operate permissioned nodes selected by Circle.

Arc's consensus engine is based on Malachite, which uses Byzantine fault-tolerant technology to provide deterministic transaction finality in under 500 milliseconds. The network also features a USDC-based fee structure, allowing users and businesses to pay fees directly in the stablecoin instead of a separate blockchain token.