Circle Internet Group has launched Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for financial markets, real-time money movement, and AI agent activity, with over 100 institutional partners and ecosystem builders live on day one. The network integrates Circle's USDC stablecoin (with more than $74 billion in circulation) and is secured by founding validators drawn from institutions that run global finance, including BlackRock, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Mastercard, Visa, and others.

What Makes Arc Different From Other Blockchains?

Arc is designed as an "economic operating system" rather than a traditional blockchain, with six core features that address real friction points in institutional finance. Unlike most blockchains that require users to pay fees in a volatile native token, Arc charges fees directly in USDC, eliminating the need for a separate cryptocurrency. The network also offers sub-second finality, meaning transactions settle instantly and permanently, which is critical for trading and payments where speed matters.

The network includes opt-in privacy features currently in development for network-wide release, allowing enterprises to conduct confidential transactions while maintaining the auditability that compliance teams require. Arc also natively supports tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including Circle's USYC tokenized money market fund, BUIDL (a tokenized treasury fund), private credit funds, and cirBTC, giving traders high-quality, liquid assets to trade and use as collateral.

How Does Arc Support the Emerging AI Agent Economy?

Arc is the first blockchain designed from inception to support AI agents as economic actors. According to Circle's data, USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume, and since the Circle Agent Stack launched in May 2026, the overwhelming majority of agent-to-agent payments settling over the x402 standard have used USDC. Arc provides infrastructure specifically built for this use case, including Agent Wallets with policy controls, nanopayments through Circle Gateway, and an emerging Agent Marketplace.

The network also introduces AgentVM, a protected environment designed to allow agents to work with sensitive data while Arc provides an immutable record verifying where each result came from without exposing the underlying data. This addresses a key challenge in autonomous finance: how to enable machine-to-machine transactions while maintaining transparency and auditability.

Steps to Understanding Arc's Institutional Security Model

• Founding Validator Cohort: Arc launches with a phased rollout from major financial institutions including BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa, and Worldpay (now Global Payments), who operate the network itself rather than simply connecting to it.
• Post-Quantum Signatures: Arc supports post-quantum cryptography today and uses deterministic consensus built to financial market standards, addressing long-term security concerns as quantum computing advances.
• Regulatory Clarity: The permissioned validator set and regulatory clarity provided by the GENIUS Act enable banks, asset managers, and enterprises to use a public blockchain for treasury, trading, and confidential payments without sacrificing compliance.

"Arc is the single most significant launch in Circle's history since USDC itself, and it is the embodiment of the premise we have operated on for thirteen years: money should work the way the internet works," said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle.

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle

Which Institutions Are Already Using Arc?

More than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders are live on or exploring Arc's private mainnet ahead of the public launch, spanning multiple sectors. Global banks including BNY, BTG Pactual, HSBC, Lead Bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, and State Street have access to a public blockchain designed to help meet bank regulatory demands. Asset managers and real-world asset issuers including Bitwise, BlackRock, Dinari, Janus Henderson, and New York Life Investment Management are also participating.

Beyond traditional finance, the network includes DeFi protocols like Aero, fomo, and Uniswap, which anchor Arc's day one trading infrastructure. Circle's Payments Network is also integrated natively into Arc, enabling money movement across borders for a fraction of a cent with near real-time settlement.

"As digital assets infrastructure matures, we expect to see certain networks increasingly designed around the needs of specific markets and use cases. Purpose-built blockchains can help accelerate adoption of digital asset use cases, and Arc appears clearly well positioned to serve stablecoin and payment use cases at scale," said Robbie Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock.

Robbie Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock

Arc also launches with Circle StableFX, which enables 24/7 programmable foreign exchange trading with near-instant, low-cost settlement. Local stablecoins active or onboarding to StableFX include USDC, EURC, AUDD, AUDF, BRLA, CADD, CHFAU, EURAU, GBPA, JPYC, KRW1, MXNB, QCAD, SEKAU, TRYB, wARS, wBRL, wCLP, wCOP, wMXN, wPEN, and ZARU, creating a global network for tokenized currency trading.

The launch represents a significant milestone in the tokenization of real-world assets, moving beyond proof-of-concept toward production infrastructure that major financial institutions are willing to operate and trust. By combining institutional-grade security, regulatory clarity, and native support for both stablecoins and tokenized assets, Arc addresses core barriers that have slowed broader adoption of blockchain technology in traditional finance.