Circle Unveils Arc Mainnet with Over 100 Apps and 10 Billion Tokens
Circle has launched its Arc mainnet with over 100 applications on board, including Aave V4 and Uniswap. The network, which uses USDC for transaction fees, was launched on September 16, 2026. According to Circle, the network began working with more than 100 applications and over 100 institutional or ecosystem developers from day one.
The Arc mainnet offers EVM compatibility, allowing existing smart contracts written in Solidity to run on the platform. Transactions on the network reach finality in less than a second. A founding validator group of 11 institutions, including BlackRock and Visa, will join Arc progressively.
Circle has minted 10 billion ARC tokens as part of the genesis process, but it's unclear when or if they'll be publicly launched. The company clarified that this step doesn't mean the token will be released to the public immediately. USDC will continue to be used for transaction fees on Arc.