Meme Coin Traders Circle Arc Launch for Potential Rush
Circle's Arc public mainnet launched on Wednesday with 11 founding validators from traditional finance. The launch has drawn attention from meme coin traders, who are positioning for a potential rush at launch. This mirrors the experience of Robinhood Chain, which also saw speculative trading take over after launching with real-world assets.
The setup is similar to Robinhood Chain's, which launched on July 1 and initially focused on tokenized assets before becoming a hub for meme coins. Within a week of its launch, decentralized exchange (DEX) volume hit a record $563.9 million on July 8, according to Dune data.
Activity cooled in August but picked up again, with the chain clearing $1.06 billion in daily DEX volume on August 29, its first billion-dollar day. The volume also peaked at a new all-time high of $3.7 billion earlier this month.
Arc has drawn similar attention, despite being built as a Layer 1 network for payments and settlement, with gas paid in USDC rather than a volatile native token. Circle raised $222 million in an Arc token presale at a $3 billion valuation, with the validator set including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, Galaxy, SBI Group, and Standard Chartered.
Speculators have been mapping Arc launchpads and pre-mainnet tokens, betting that the chain's opening week will resemble the Robinhood Chain trading rush. One commentator noted, 'if you've been active on CT, you've probably already seen people calling it the next Robinhood trenches. Maybe they're right.'