Circle to Introduce Its Own Arc Blockchain for Working with Stablecoins
Date: 2025-08-13 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
The issuer of the USDC stablecoin, Circle, has announced the development and launch of its first blockchain called Arc. This project is focused on the use of stablecoins in settlements, cross-border transfers, and financial transactions. As stated in the company's quarterly report, Arc will be a first-level (L1) blockchain with support for the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which will allow using the existing ecosystem of Ethereum tools and applications.
A special feature of Arc will be the ability to pay transaction fees with USDC itself. The developers promise almost instant confirmation of transactions. The launch of a test public version of the network is planned for the fall of this year. Arc will be built into all of Circle's key products, but the company will retain support for many other partner blockchains already working with USDC.
The company's financial results for the second quarter of 2025 reflect a noticeable increase in the stablecoin volume in circulation - by 90% year-on-year, to $61.3 billion. Income from reserves and operating activities increased by 53%, reaching $658 million. However, the net result was negative - a loss of $482 million, which is mainly due to the costs of the IPO, which took place in early summer.
The placement of shares in June brought Circle $1.1 billion, and the company's market valuation at that time reached $6.9 billion. According to Yahoo Finance, by August 12, the company's market capitalization had grown to $39.9 billion.
Circle's main competitor, Tether, showed a net profit of $4.9 billion in the second quarter with a capitalization of its USDT token of about $165 billion. Despite the fact that both USDC and USDT are available on dozens of blockchains, both companies still do not have their own networks.
Tether management has previously expressed intentions to improve the infrastructure for USDT. According to CEO Paolo Ardoino, current intermediary networks receive a significant share of revenue from stablecoins without providing comparable benefits. He noted the possibility of switching to the Plasma blockchain, which will allow transfers without fees. Interestingly, in 2024, Ardoino did not consider creating his own blockchain the best strategy, since ready-made technological solutions already exist. However, after Circle published an article about the launch of Arc, he commented on the news on the social network X, hinting that the strategy of some companies is similar to “the behavior of moths flying to a flame.”
