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Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc, its Layer 1 blockchain for stablecoin payments, tokenized assets and financial markets. The network uses USDC for transaction fees rather than requiring users to hold a separate native token for gas.
Arc went live on Sept. 16 with more than 100 applications and more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders. Circle says the EVM-compatible network provides deterministic sub-second finality.
USDC Pays Gas as Circle Mints 10B ARC Tokens
Arc uses USDC as its native gas asset, keeping network fees denominated in dollars across transfers and smart contract interactions. Circle has also integrated USDC, EURC, StableFX and Circle Payments Network into the network.
Circle completed the genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens this week, creating the token’s full initial supply. The company said the mint is a technical milestone and does not commit it to a public ARC launch.
ARC is intended to support future network security, utility and governance, while transaction fees will remain payable in USDC.
BlackRock, Visa and DTCC Join Founding Validator Cohort
Arc is operated by a permissioned validator set, with a founding cohort being introduced in phases. The group includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments.
Circle says it is exploring a transition from proof of authority toward proof of stake in 2027. Aave and Morpho are supporting lending markets at launch, while Aero and Uniswap are among Arc’s trading platforms. Circle’s USYC and BlackRock’s BUIDL are also available across the ecosystem.
Arc Launches After More Than 700M Testnet Transactions
Arc’s public testnet launched in October 2025 and processed more than 700 million transactions before mainnet, while developers built more than 1,200 projects.
Some advertised features remain under development. Network-wide opt-in privacy has not yet launched, while Circle’s roadmap includes specialized environments for payments, privacy and AI-agent activity.
For users connecting to Arc now, mainnet transactions are live and USDC is required to pay network fees.
