TL;DR
- Circle will launch Arc, its layer-1 blockchain, on September 16, 2026, alongside founding validators such as BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, and DTCC.
- The network uses a proof-of-authority mechanism with approximately 20 permissioned validators and charges fees in USDC, offering deterministic finality in under one second.
- The ARC token raised $222 million in a private presale at $0.30 per unit, implying a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion.
Circle is preparing to launch the Arc public mainnet on September 16, 2026, eleven months after opening its public testnet and thirteen months since the network was announced for the first time.
The layer-1 blockchain, built by Circle Internet Group, was designed specifically for institutional settlement, stablecoin payments, tokenized assets, and what the company calls the agentic economy.
Arc Mainnet launches September 16.
Arc is an open blockchain network being built for the world’s financial markets, real-time money movement, and agentic economic activity.
Arc’s founding validator cohort includes @BlackRock, @The_DTCC, @galaxyhq, @GlobalPayInc, @Mastercard,… pic.twitter.com/uQDzS9cCo9
— Arc (@arc) August 5, 2026
The network is currently in a private mainnet phase, with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders integrating the platform and verifying real-world use cases, including stablecoin payments, tokenized asset issuance, and on-chain financial markets.
What Sets Arc Apart from the Competition
Three design decisions distinguish Arc from general-purpose layer-1 networks.
1 – The first is that fees are denominated in USDC, eliminating the need for treasury teams to hold a volatile asset solely to pay gas. The average weekly transaction cost recorded on the testnet was $0.004.
2 – The second is that finality is deterministic and sub-second, allowing counterparties to treat a transaction as complete the moment it settles, directly impacting collateral cycles.
3 – The third is that privacy is configurable through optional controls that protect transaction details without compromising auditability.
High-Caliber Validators
The founding validator set includes BlackRock, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, Galaxy, Global Payments, Intercontinental Exchange, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa.
Arc will initially operate under a proof-of-authority mechanism, with approximately 20 permissioned validators, a deliberate trade-off of censorship resistance in favor of operational predictability. Circle has stated that a future transition to a proof-of-stake mechanism is planned, though no confirmed date has been announced.
The Use Cases
Integrations announced for launch day include lending and trading protocols such as Aave, Morpho, Uniswap, and Aerodrome, alongside payment providers such as Rain, Thunes, and Wirex. However, the integration with DTCC to tokenize assets held in custody on the network is scheduled for the second half of 2027, more than a year after the public mainnet launch.
In May 2026, Circle completed a private presale of the ARC token raising $222 million, selling 740 million tokens at $0.30 each with a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with $75 million. The initial supply is distributed with 60% allocated to the ecosystem, 25% to Circle, and 15% to long-term reserves. The token has not been publicly launched and no airdrop has been announced.
The experience of similar networks such as Plasma and Tempo offers a useful reference framework: token-incentivized deposits proved far less durable than genuine enterprise payment volume. For Arc, the metrics that matter are transfer volume between unaffiliated addresses, the ratio of that volume to total value locked, and the staking activation schedule.
