Circle's Arc Blockchain Launches to Impressive Numbers
Circle's Arc blockchain has launched to impressive numbers in its first week, tapping into the $74 billion USDC supply across over 30 chains. With a mainnet launch on September 16, Circle deployed $649 million in USDC and $7 million in EURC at the start, backed by an ecosystem of over 100 participants including big names like BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, and DTCC.
The network features sub-second transaction finality and target fees of around $0.01 per transaction, with USDC serving as both native gas and settlement asset. This means every transaction runs through Circle's stablecoin rather than a volatile native token.
Arc has integrated with Aave, Morpho, and Uniswap from day one, and the launch roster also includes Circle's own ARC token. The company minted 10 billion ARC tokens during the genesis event, splitting them across three buckets: ecosystem development fund (60%), Circle itself (25%), and long-term reserves (15%).