Circle, the world's second-largest stablecoin issuer, has launched the public testnet of its open Layer 1 blockchain network, Arc, which aims to bring global financial infrastructure on-chain.
According to an announcement on Tuesday, Circle referred to this launch as the "economic operating system of the internet," with participation from over 100 major companies in banking, capital markets, and fintech, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard, and State Street.
“With the public testnet of Arc, we see leading companies, protocols, and projects beginning to build and test, showcasing significant early momentum,” said Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. “These companies collectively reach billions of users, moving, exchanging, and custodizing trillions of assets and payments,” he added.
Arc is designed to provide predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second finality, and optional privacy controls, directly integrated with Circle's USDC stablecoin and payment stack. It aims to support a wide range of financial applications, from lending and capital markets to global payments and foreign exchange (FX).
The launch of the testnet has attracted participation from major institutions such as Apollo, BNY Mellon, Intercontinental Exchange, and Deutsche Bank, as well as global payment companies Mastercard, FIS, Paysafe, and Nuvei.
Circle stated that Arc's dedicated architecture connects local markets across continents from Africa to the Americas and Asia, providing enterprise-grade infrastructure for traditional financial institutions and Web3 native projects.
Another key feature of Arc is its role in stablecoin infrastructure. The network supports fiat-pegged tokens, tokenized funds, and foreign exchange liquidity. Issuers from seven countries, including Japan (JPYC), Brazil (BRLA), Mexico (MXNB), and the Philippines (PHPC), have joined the testnet.
The Arc ecosystem is not limited to finance; it integrates with leading developers and infrastructure providers such as MetaMask, Fireblocks, Chainlink, Alchemy, and LayerZero, as well as cross-chain bridges like Wormhole and Stargate.
AI integration is also in the works, with Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK enhancing the developer experience through AI-driven tools.
Allaire stated that Arc is “designed to connect every local market to the global economy,” adding that it provides opportunities for every type of company to “build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure.”
Circle indicated that the long-term goal is to transform Arc into a community-governed network, expanding validator participation and establishing transparent governance.
Circle announced plans to launch Arc in August. At that time, the company stated that the network would use USDC as its native fuel token. Last week, Allaire also announced that Circle is building private stablecoins on Arc.
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Original article: “Circle Launches Arc Testnet with Participation from BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Visa”
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