Circle β the company behind
USDC β launched its own blockchain, Arc. CEO Jeremy Allaire called it "more consequential than USDC itself."Arc is framed as an "economic operating system" for payments, tokenized assets and lending. 100+ institutions are involved, including BlackRock, Mastercard, Visa and DTCC. Fees are paid in
USDC, not a volatile native token. An ARC token exists β 10 billion minted β but no public launch yet, with any real utility pushed to 2027.The backdrop: BofA, Citi and Goldman are building a rival stablecoin; Stripe has its own chain. Circle's wager is that the winner won't be the best stablecoin β it'll be whoever owns the pipes, per CoinDesk.