Circle Launches Arc Blockchain with $649 Million in USDC and $7 Million in EURC

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has launched its own Layer 1 blockchain named Arc, deploying $649 million in USDC and $7 million in EURC. The public mainnet went live on September 16, 2026, marking a significant strategic shift for the company, which has traditionally focused on issuing stablecoins across various blockchains. CEO Jeremy Allaire described this launch as potentially the most important in Circle's history, emphasizing the company's move towards vertical integration.

Arc's unique feature is that USDC serves as the native gas token for transactions, which are designed to incur fees of approximately $0.01, all payable in USDC. The blockchain boasts sub-second deterministic finality, allowing for almost instantaneous transaction settlements, a departure from the probabilistic finality seen in many traditional blockchains. Additionally, Arc supports over 22 fiat-linked stablecoins and integrates Circle's StableFX product for atomic foreign exchange settlements between different stablecoin pairs.

The founding validators of the Arc network include major financial institutions such as BlackRock, Visa, and Mastercard, with over 100 institutional participants involved at launch. Notable decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols like Aave and Morpho are already building on Arc, providing immediate utility to the blockchain from its inception. Circle also executed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens, raising approximately $222 million in a presale that valued the tokens at around $0.022 each. This initial liquidity injection is expected to bolster the use of both USDC and EURC within the new ecosystem.

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Source: KLEA News