Circle Launches Arc Mainnet for USDC-Optimized Layer 1 Blockchain

Circle (USDC) announced the launch of Arc, its USDC-optimized Layer 1 blockchain mainnet, according to The Block. Arc supports gas fees paid in USDC and offers sub-second transaction finality along with EVM compatibility. Over 100 applications including Aave, Meme, and Uniswap have joined the Arc ecosystem upon mainnet launch. Eleven institutions such as BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, and Visa are scheduled to join sequentially via Valdata.

Circle announced the initial issuance of 1 billion ARC tokens this week but stated that the public token release has yet to be determined.