Circle deploys $649M USDC and $7M EURC on Arc blockchain

Circle isn’t just issuing stablecoins anymore. It’s running the rails they move on. The company behind USDC has deployed $649M in USDC and $7M in EURC on Arc, its own Layer 1 blockchain that launched its public mainnet on September 16, 2026. For a company that spent years being the “stablecoin issuer that works with every chain,” building its own chain is a sharp strategic pivot, one that CEO Jeremy Allaire has called potentially the most significant launch in Circle’s history. What Arc actually does differently Arc’s headline feature is deceptively simple: USDC is the native gas token. Transaction fees on Arc target roughly $0.01, denominated entirely in USDC. The blockchain delivers sub-second deterministic finality, meaning transactions settle almost instantly with no ambiguity about whether they went through. Traditional blockchains often have probabilistic finality, where a transaction becomes “more confirmed” over time. Arc skips the uncertainty entirely. Arc also launched with support for 22-plus fiat-linked stablecoins, not just USDC and EURC. The chain integrates Circle’s StableFX product, which enables atomic foreign exchange settlement between different stablecoin pairs....