Circle Deploys Arc Mainnet with USDC as Native Gas Token

Circle has officially launched the mainnet of Arc, a layer‑1 blockchain designed for stablecoin payments and financial‑market use cases. The network uses USDC as its native gas token and offers Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility with deterministic sub‑second settlement finality.

Key Features of Arc

• USDC serves as the native gas asset for transaction fees.
• Supports more than 20 fiat‑backed stablecoins, including USDC, EURC, JPYC, KRW1 and TRYB.
• Native tokenized assets such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC are available on the chain.
• Interoperability with over 20 blockchains via Circle’s Cross‑Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) and Gateway.
• Proof‑of‑Authority consensus for now, with a planned transition to Proof‑of‑Stake in 2027.

Institutional Participation

The public testnet, released in October 2025, attracted more than 100 companies, among them BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa. Circle previously reported that a private mainnet phase also involved over 100 institutional and ecosystem builders.

Token Supply and Future Plans

Circle completed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens. The mint does not constitute a commitment to a public token launch. The network aims to broaden participation in its operations and to evolve its consensus mechanism by 2027.

Leadership Comments

CEO Jeremy Allaire described Arc as “the single most significant launch in Circle’s history since USDC itself,” emphasizing its focus on programmable money, global markets and agentic economic activity.