Circle Unveils Its Own Blockchain Infrastructure, Arc

Circle, the company behind the USDC and EURC stablecoins, has been working on its own blockchain infrastructure called Arc. The Circle blockchain is designed to support various financial applications, including stablecoin payments, foreign exchange, lending and credit, tokenized real-world assets, capital markets, cross-border settlement, and machine-to-machine payments.

Arc is already live as a public testnet, but it has not yet launched on the mainnet. The network aims to provide predictable fees, fast finality, and direct access to Circle's financial infrastructure for businesses. This would make USDC more attractive to institutional investors and give it a much-needed blockchain built around its unique financial infrastructure.

One of the key features of Arc is its use of USDC as the native gas token. This means that businesses can pay for transactions directly in USDC, making transaction costs more predictable. The Circle blockchain will also utilize the consensus engine called Malachite to achieve finality, which can finalize transactions in less than one second.