Circle Sets September 16 Launch for Arc Mainnet

Who Are Arc's Founding Validators?

Arc's 11 external founding validators are:

• BlackRock
• The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
• Galaxy
• Global Payments
• Intercontinental Exchange
• Mastercard
• MoneyGram
• SBI Group
• Standard Chartered
• Sumitomo Corporation
• Visa

Circle will also operate alongside these institutions as part of Arc's initial validator group.

The company said the structure is intended to give Arc the “trust, security, operational, and compliance standards required of critical financial market infrastructure.”

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called the participants “a cohort of network validators no other network can match.”

MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo said:

“Arc reflects where the industry is heading: trusted, compliant, and unified infrastructure that makes stablecoins practical for real-world payments.”

What Is Circle's Arc Blockchain?

Circle describes Arc as an “economic operating system” for financial markets.

The network is designed around stablecoin settlement, with USDC serving as its payment and settlement asset.

Unlike blockchains that require users to hold a separate native token for transaction fees, Arc will use USDC for gas fees.

Circle says Arc is being built to support:

• Fast financial settlement
• Stablecoin-denominated transaction fees
• Privacy controls
• Programmable finance
• Tokenized real-world assets
• Financial applications using blockchain infrastructure

The public launch is expected to include privacy features, an agent stack for programmable finance and tools for issuing, transferring and settling tokenized assets.

Arc Testnet Processes 500 Million Transactions

Arc was operating as a private mainnet when Circle announced its September launch date.

More than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders were already participating.

The public testnet launched in October 2025.

Allaire said it had processed more than 500 million transactions across nearly 3 million wallets.

That wallet figure does not necessarily represent three million individual users. A person, organization or automated system can control multiple blockchain addresses, particularly in test environments.

Aave, Morpho and Uniswap Prepare for Arc

Several major crypto protocols are expected to support Arc when its public mainnet opens.

Aave, Morpho and Uniswap are expected to provide lending, liquidity and decentralized exchange infrastructure.

User access and wallet connectivity are expected from:

• Binance Wallet
• Kraken
• Ledger
• MetaMask

The mix of traditional financial firms and crypto-native platforms highlights Circle's goal of connecting institutional finance with blockchain-based markets.

BlackRock Plans BUIDL Deployment on Arc

BlackRock plans to deploy its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, or BUIDL, on Arc.

Arc's built-in USDC integration is intended to allow institutional investors to subscribe to the fund, redeem positions and use fund assets within the same onchain environment.

Circle is also working with DTCC on a planned integration involving assets held at The Depository Trust Company.

The initiative is expected to begin in the second half of 2027.

Under the proposed structure, market participants could use third-party Arc applications for stablecoin-native settlement while referencing securities tokenized from assets held at DTC.

Circle said tokenized securities would retain the same investor rights and protections as traditionally held securities.

BNY and Standard Chartered are also exploring Arc integrations involving:

• Custody
• Stablecoin access
• Foreign exchange
• Repo markets

Arc Token Presale Raises $222 Million

Circle raised $222 million through an Arc token presale in May 2026.

Andreessen Horowitz led the financing with a $75 million investment. BlackRock, SBI Group and Standard Chartered Ventures also participated.

The transaction valued the Arc network at a reported $3 billion.

Circle later increased its full-year other-revenue guidance to $310 million-$330 million, up from an earlier forecast of $150 million-$170 million.

Both ends of the range increased by $160 million.

Circle said part of the increase came from revenue recognized from the Arc presale, but it did not specify how much of the revised forecast came from the token sale versus recurring operating revenue.

Circle Revenue Reaches $701 Million in Q2

Circle reported $701 million in total revenue and reserve income for the second quarter of 2026.

That represented a 7% year-over-year increase.

However, the result came in below analysts' consensus estimate of $717.5 million by about $16.5 million, or 2.3%.

Reserve income reached $668 million, accounting for roughly 95% of Circle's total revenue and reserve income.

The company's average reserve return fell by 66 basis points to 3.5%.

Lower yields limited reserve-income growth even as more USDC entered circulation.

USDC Transaction Volume Jumps 151%

USDC circulation ended the quarter at $73.3 billion, up 19% year over year.

Average USDC circulation during the quarter increased 25%.

Onchain USDC transaction volume reached $14.8 trillion, up 151%.

That increase shows strong blockchain activity, but the transaction figure should not be treated as Circle revenue or unique payment volume.

The same USDC can move repeatedly between:

• Wallets
• Exchanges
• DeFi protocols
• Payment platforms
• Other blockchain applications

USDC's share of the fiat-backed stablecoin market nevertheless declined to 27%, suggesting the broader stablecoin sector was expanding faster.

Allaire said:

“digital asset markets themselves have continued to see significant weakness.”

Circle Returns to Profit

Circle reported $48 million in net income from continuing operations, compared with a $482 million loss in the year-earlier quarter.

That represents a $530 million improvement.

However, the earlier period included large stock-based compensation expenses related to Circle's 2025 initial public offering.

Adjusted EBITDA reached $143 million, up 8%.

Adjusted operating expenses increased 23% as Circle invested in:

• Product development
• Infrastructure
• Artificial intelligence

Revenue excluding distribution costs reached $289 million, up 15%.

Its associated margin increased from 38% to 41%.

Circle recorded $410 million in distribution and transaction costs, equal to roughly 61% of reserve income.

Allaire said Circle's USDC distribution agreement with Coinbase had “renewed on its existing terms.”

Payments, subscriptions and blockchain infrastructure generated $34 million, up 41%.

Those businesses still represented only about 4.9% of total revenue and reserve income, leaving Circle heavily dependent on reserve earnings.

Circle Payments Network Expands

Circle Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume during the quarter.

The network also enrolled 175 financial institutions.

Circle reported that annualized transaction volume increased 76% quarter over quarter.

A separate figure put sequential network or participation growth at 29%. The two percentages refer to differently defined measures and should not be treated as the same metric.

By July 31, annualized transaction volume had increased further to $23 billion.

That was $8.3 billion, or about 56.5%, above the quarterly figure.

These figures represent annualized run rates rather than transaction totals completed over a full year.

Circle Expands Its Financial Infrastructure

Circle also moved deeper into regulated financial infrastructure.

In July 2026, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval for Circle National Trust, a national trust bank.

Circle also received a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services during the same month.

The federal structure allows regulated digital-asset custody and could eventually enable Circle to manage USDC reserves directly.

Allaire said the bank:

“becomes a way to project Circle's infrastructure into global markets for payments, for capital markets, and for use of digital dollars in corporations all around the world.”

Circle also acquired most of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio, becoming the largest U.S. holder of those patents.

Arc was identified as one of the products expected to benefit from the acquired intellectual property.