Circle Launches Arc Mainnet, Mints 10 Billion ARC Tokens

Circle, the issuer of dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC, unveiled Arc on Aug. 12, 2025, as an open Layer-1 blockchain built for stablecoin-native finance. The EVM-compatible network uses USDC for transaction fees and combines a built-in foreign-exchange engine, sub-second deterministic finality and optional privacy controls. Circle is targeting payments, FX and capital-markets applications, seeking to address volatile gas costs, fragmented liquidity and confidentiality constraints that have slowed institutional blockchain adoption.

Circle launched Arc’s public testnet on Oct. 28, 2025, with more than 100 companies participating, and expects a mainnet beta in 2026. A white paper published in May 2026 outlined an ARC token with an initial supply of 10 billion and annual issuance starting at 2% to 3%. Circle plans to allocate 60% to the ecosystem, 25% to itself and 15% to a long-term reserve, with ARC supporting staking and network coordination.

Circle’s Arc is a public blockchain network designed to support institutional financial activity, with validators responsible for confirming transactions and helping secure the system. The participation of major asset managers, payment companies and banks underscores how traditional finance is moving beyond exploratory crypto projects and positioning blockchain and stablecoin-based settlement as potential infrastructure for global payments and capital markets.

Circle said the Arc mainnet is scheduled to launch in September 2026. BlackRock, DTCC, Standard Chartered, Visa and Mastercard are among the institutions that have signed on as founding validators ahead of the rollout. No investment or transaction value was disclosed. The announcement instead highlights the breadth of institutional support Circle has assembled before taking the network into full production.

Circle is the issuer of the U.S. dollar stablecoin USDC, while Arc is its Layer 1 blockchain built for institutional finance, with a focus on stablecoin payments, asset tokenization and onchain settlement. The fundraising shows Circle expanding from a token issuer into a provider of financial infrastructure and reflects growing Wall Street investment in public-blockchain applications.

On May 11, 2026, Circle announced that it had raised $222 million by preselling 740 million ARC tokens at $0.30 each. Based on an initial supply of 10 billion tokens, the sale gave Arc a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. a16z crypto led the round with a $75 million investment, joined by institutions including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest and SC Ventures.

Circle issues USDC, the world’s second-largest U.S. dollar stablecoin, and earns most of its revenue from interest on reserves held in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries. Growth in USDC circulation therefore directly boosts revenue. Circle is developing Arc as an L1 network for payments, foreign exchange and AI-agent micropayments, a key test of whether it can evolve from an interest-driven business into a network platform.

Circle reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $770 million on February 25, 2026, up 77% from a year earlier, and net income of $133 million. Its shares jumped more than 20% intraday. On May 11, it also announced a $222 million presale of the ARC token at a $3 billion valuation. A beta version of the Arc mainnet is scheduled to launch later in the year, with Agent Stack and micropayments targeting AI-agent transactions.