Circle Launches Arc Public Testnet with Strong Global Institutional Adoption

• Arc connects stablecoins and tokenized assets onchain
• More than 100 institutions participate in the testnet
• USDC will be Arc's native gas token

Circle opened officially The public testnet of Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain built to power large-scale financial and enterprise applications using stablecoins and regulatory-focused infrastructure. The company describes Arc as an “Economic Operating System for the Internet,” bringing together leaders from the payments, banking, technology, and capital markets sectors.

“With the Arc public testnet, we are seeing remarkable initial momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin building and testing,”

said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle. He highlighted that these organizations move trillions in assets globally and serve economies across multiple regions, reinforcing the initiative's international character.

The new network delivers transaction finalization in under a second, predictable fees priced in dollars, and optional privacy, with direct integration into Circle's full-stack infrastructure. The goal is to serve use cases including international payments, capital markets, foreign exchange, and lending, within models that bridge traditional finance and cryptocurrencies.

The launch comes months after the company's $1,2 billion IPO and follows the announcement that USDC will be Arc's native gas token, reinforcing the network as a liquidity router for global stablecoins. Circle ranks second in the market, with approximately $76 billion in stablecoins issued.

More than 100 companies are participating in Arc's initial development. Financial institutions include BlackRock, State Street, BNY Mellon, Apollo, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, BTG Pactual, and SBI Holdings. In the payments and technology segment, Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Cloudflare, FIS, Nuvei, Brex, and Pairpoint are also participating.

Arc's infrastructure already supports the issuance and circulation of tokenized fiat stablecoins such as BRLA, AUDF, JPYC, MXNB, PHPC, and QCAD, with negotiations underway to bring other currencies, such as the dollar and euro, directly to the network.

The development ecosystem includes names like Chainlink, LayerZero, Alchemy, QuickNode, and Thirdweb, as well as compatibility with wallets like MetaMask, Ledger, Fireblocks, and Turnkey. Anthropic participates with the Claude Agent SDK to automate onchain flows with AI. Cross-chain protocols like Wormhole and Stargate are advancing connectivity with other blockchains, while Coinbase, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Robinhood are exploring trading and liquidity integrations.

Arc's roadmap includes community-driven governance, validator expansion, and infrastructure designed to serve institutions that require regulatory compliance and risk management in a digital economy built directly on the internet.