How Arc works
- Gas in dollars: fees are paid in USDC, with no volatile native token needed to transact
- Sub-second, deterministic finality
- EVM-compatible, so existing Ethereum smart contracts run on it
- Native home for USDC, EURC and tokenized assets, with Circle StableFX for 24/7 currency conversion
- Opt-in privacy for balances and transactions, still in development network-wide
Launch and ecosystem
Arc's public testnet opened in October 2025 and processed more than 700 million transactions before mainnet. At launch, Circle said more than 100 applications and 100 institutional and ecosystem builders were live, including Aave, Morpho and Uniswap. It is run by a permissioned validator set for now, with a move to proof of stake explored for 2027.
The ARC token
Circle raised $222 million in an ARC token presale in May 2026, led by a16z crypto with BlackRock, Apollo, Intercontinental Exchange and others, at a $3 billion fully diluted network valuation. Circle holds 25% of the 10 billion tokens, and 60% are reserved for people who build on and use the network.
The full supply was minted at mainnet, but Circle says a public token launch is undecided. USDC remains the currency for fees.
Why it matters
Arc lets Circle capture more of the value USDC creates, beyond interest on reserves, which falls when rates drop. It competes with Stripe's Tempo and Plasma for the role of default payments chain. See what USDC is and our stablecoin stocks guide.
