Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL:NYSE) has announced the launch of the public testnet for Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain network designed to support developers and companies in bringing economic activity onchain. The launch follows broad engagement and collaboration from over one hundred companies across the financial and economic system, along with extensive infrastructure support and global participation. Arc is now available for developers and enterprises to deploy, test, and build on what Circle describes as the new Economic Operating System (“OS”) for the internet.
Arc is positioned as a significant advancement in building open, programmable financial infrastructure for the global economy. Key features include predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack platform. These capabilities enable a wide array of use cases across lending, capital markets, foreign exchange (FX), and global payments.
Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle, commented on the early traction: “With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test. Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments, and support local economies across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy.” Allaire added, “Arc presents the opportunity for every type of company to build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure—advancing a shared vision that a more open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system can be built natively on the internet.”
The Arc ecosystem is developing across several sectors. In capital markets, firms such as Apollo (APO:NYSE), BNY (BK:NYSE), Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE:NYSE), and State Street (STT:NYSE) are engaging with the platform to upgrade financial system infrastructure, aiming for improved efficiency, innovation, and reach in equity, fixed income, derivatives, clearing, and custody.
Retail and institutional banks, asset managers, and insurers are also participating, recognizing opportunities in payments, lending, asset issuance, and capital markets onchain. Engaged firms include Absa (ABG:JSE), Bank Frick, BlackRock Inc. (BLK:NYSE), BTG Pactual (BPAC11:B3), Clearbank, Commerzbank (CBK:FWB), Deutsche Bank (DB:NYSE), Emirates NBD (EMIRATESNBD:DFM), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB:ADX), FirstRand Bank (FSR:JSE), Fiserv (FI:NYSE), Goldman Sachs (GS:NYSE), HSBC (HSBA:LSE), Invesco (IVZ:NYSE), Kyobo Life, SBI Holdings (8473:TSE), Société Générale (GLE:EPA), Standard Chartered (STAN:LSE), and WisdomTree (WT:NYSE).
For global payments, technology, and fintech, Arc offers frictionless payment utility for individuals, businesses, and institutions. This architecture extends to AI systems for real-time global value exchange. Firms engaging in this area include Amazon Web Services (AWS) (AMZN:NASDAQ), Brex, Careem, Catena Labs, Cloudflare (NET:NYSE), Corpay (CPAY:NYSE), dLocal (DLO: NASDAQ), Dmall, Ebanx, FIS (FIS:NYSE), Hecto Financial, LianLian, Mastercard (MA:NYSE), Mercoin, Noah, Nuvei (NVEI:NYSE), Pairpoint by Vodafone (VOD:LSE), Paysafe (PSFE:NYSE), PhotonPay, Ramp, Sasai Fintech (a business of Cassava Technologies), Sumitomo Corporation (8053:TSE), Visa (V:NYSE), and Yellow Card.
Arc provides core infrastructure for issuers of fiat stablecoins, tokenized equities, credit funds, and money market funds, with a roadmap for stablecoins as gas fees and native infrastructure for swaps and FX liquidity. Digital asset issuers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Korea, including AUDF (Forte Securities), BRLA (Avenia), JPYC (JPYC Inc.), KRW1 (BDACS), MXNB (Juno, a Bitso company), PHPC (Coins.
PH), and QCAD (Stablecorp), are joining for testnet. Circle is also engaging other stablecoin issuers for assets like dollar, euro, and other global digital assets.
Developer tooling and blockchain infrastructure providers are also crucial to Arc. Digital wallet providers such as Bron, Exodus, Fireblocks, Hecto Innovation, Ledger, MetaMask, Privy, Rainbow, Turnkey, and Vultisig connect Arc to user experiences. Developer tools like Alchemy, Chainlink, Crossmint, Dynamic, Fun.xyz, LayerZero, Pimlico, Thirdweb, and ZeroDev support builders. AI integration is facilitated by building on Anthropic’s Claude Agent SDK for AI-powered developer tools. Crosschain connectivity is enabled by Across, Stargate, and Wormhole. Infrastructure support comes from Blockdaemon, Blockscout, Bridge, Elliptic, Quicknode, Ramp Network, Tenderly, Transak, and TRM.
Digital asset markets and liquidity are foundational to Arc, involving exchanges, market makers, OTC desks, and lending protocols. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Curve, Dromos Labs (Aerodrome, Velodrome), Eular Finance, Fluid, and Uniswap Labs provide trading and liquidity pools. Centralized exchanges (CEXs) such as Bitvavo, ByBit, Coinbase (COIN:NASDAQ), Coincheck (CNCK:NASDAQ), Hashkey, Kraken, and Robinhood (HOOD:NASDAQ) expand access. Market makers and OTC desks, including Auros, B2C2, Cumberland, Galaxy Digital (GLXY:NASDAQ), GSR, IMC, Forte Securities, Keyrock, NONCO, Wintermute, and Zodia Markets, ensure liquidity. Borrow/lend protocols like Aave, Maple, and Morpho enable credit and capital efficiency, while yield protocols such as Centrifuge, Superform, and Securitize power stablecoin-native yield opportunities. Tokenized fund issuers include WTGXX and CRDT by WisdomTree (WT:NYSE). Custodians like BitGo, Copper, Taurus, and Zodia Custody provide institutional digital asset storage.
The public testnet launch marks the initial phase of Arc’s progression toward a distributed, community-driven system. While Circle is overseeing the initial development and operation, the long-term objective is for the network to be governed by a globally distributed set of participants, including financial institutions, technology platforms, infrastructure providers, and protocol developers. This will involve expanding validator participation, establishing transparent governance frameworks, and fostering community involvement in the network’s evolution. The goal for Arc is to become a shared, neutral layer of economic infrastructure for the internet, characterized by openness, cryptographic accountability, and collective operation.
Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL) is a global financial technology firm facilitating the use of digital currencies and public blockchains for payments, commerce, and financial applications. Circle is known for building a widely used stablecoin network and issuing USDC and EURC stablecoins through its regulated affiliates. The company offers a suite of financial and technology services to integrate stablecoins and blockchains into enterprise products and operations.
