Memecoin Launchpad Dominates Arc Network's First Day Trading Volume

A memecoin launchpad accounted for approximately 82% of the $410.8 million in trading volume generated on the first day of Circle's Arc network public mainnet, according to data from decentralized exchanges.

Circle built Arc to support financial markets, real-time fund movement, and autonomous economic activity. However, speculative traders dominated the opening day.

Although Circle introduced Arc to institutions, memecoin traders arrived first. Arc is an open Layer 1 network created by Circle, which issues USDC. Circle promotes Arc as "an economic operating system for the internet," with founding members including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, and ICE.

Over 100 institutions and ecosystem developers had already deployed or tested on Arc's private mainnet prior to its public launch.

Asset managers like Bitwise, BlackRock, and J. Aron Henderson are transferring tokenized funds onto the chain, while payment firms such as Visa and MoneyGram plan to use Arc for stablecoin settlement.

Exchanges including Uniswap, Robinhood, and Pump.fun are expanding spot, perpetual futures, and cross-chain markets. However, on-chain data from analyst Adam shows that the opening day was led by a different group entirely.

Dune data reveals that launchpad tokens generated $336.26 million in trading volume on launch day, with AgoraPad processing $22.35 million alone. Minara.fun contributed $36.41 million and Tollylabs $19.65 million. AgoraPad directly minted 83,751 tokens—over 86% of all tokens issued on the chain in a single day.

Traders collectively minted 97,025 tokens and recorded 7.76 million transactions on September 16. Traders had been eyeing this setup since before launch and immediately connected it to Robinhood Chain, which recorded only $14.74 million in daily volume on its debut day on July 1.

While Robinhood Chain saw a slow start but later hit a record $3.7 billion daily volume in August, Arc's sustainability remains uncertain. The coming weeks will reveal whether institutional capital or launchpad activity drives momentum for Arc.