Overview
- Circle opened Arc’s public mainnet on Sept. 16, 2026, deploying a Layer‑1 chain built for payments, tokenized assets and institutional finance.
- The network launched with a permissioned validator cohort of more than 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard and Standard Chartered.
- Circle completed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens but said the mint is a technical step and not a commitment to a public ARC sale.
- Circle reported deploying liquidity onto Arc, placing about $649 million in USDC and $7 million in EURC on the new chain to seed trading and settlement activity.
- Arc combines EVM compatibility, deterministic sub‑second finality, opt‑in privacy features and a proof‑of‑authority validator model that Circle plans to explore transitioning to proof‑of‑stake in 2027.