Circle Arc mainnet launches with USDC gas

Circle has launched the public mainnet of Arc on Sept. 16, bringing its USDC-powered Layer 1 blockchain online with institutional validators, more than 20 fiat stablecoins and tokenized funds available from launch. Summary Circle launched Arc mainnet with USDC as gas and deterministic sub-second settlement for financial applications. Arc supports twenty-two fiat stablecoins, while BUIDL, USYC, JAAA and JTRSY launch natively at launch. Eleven institutional validators join Circle initially, including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard and Standard Chartered globally. Circle minted ten billion ARC tokens, while stating no public token launch has occurred yet. Circle previously agreed to sell 807.5 million ARC tokens privately for $242.2 million in proceeds. Circle said in itsofficial Arc mainnet announcement that the network uses USDC as its native gas asset, provides deterministic settlement in under one second and supports Ethereum Virtual Machine applications, allowing developers to use Solidity contracts and familiar Ethereum development tools. The public opening follows an Arc testnet that processed more than 700 million transactions, according to Circle’s launch announcement. Cir...