Circle, the issuer of the US dollar stablecoin USDC, announced today (28) that its Arc blockchain, which focuses on payments and financial services, has officially launched a public test network and has attracted more than 100 global financial institutions, asset management companies and technology companies to participate in the test.
Heavyweight companies participating in the test
According to the official introduction , companies participating in the Arc Blockchain public testnet test cover a wide range of fields, including traditional finance and emerging technologies, including:
- Traditional financial giants: BlackRock, HSBC, Visa, State Street, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, Invesco, Standard Chartered, First Abu Dhabi Bank and SBI Holdings.
- Digital asset and fintech companies: Coinbase, Kraken, Nuvei, Brex, Coincheck, and DeFi protocols such as Aave, Curve, and Maple.
- Technology and infrastructure providers: AWS, Mastercard, Cloudflare, and artificial intelligence company Anthropic (developer of Claude AI).
- Regional stablecoin issuers: Australia’s Forte (AUDF), Brazil’s Avenia (BRLA), Mexico’s Juno (MXNB), and the Philippines’ Coins.ph (PHPC).
Circle said these companies serve billions of users, represent hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets under management and payment market share, and have operations across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
What is the Arc blockchain? Built for financial services
The Arc blockchain is a Layer-1 public blockchain developed by Circle, designed specifically for institutional-grade financial applications. Unlike general-purpose smart contract platforms, its core focus is on payments and asset tokenization. Arc's features include:
- USD-denominated transaction fees: Gas fees are paid in USDC.
- Sub-second settlement: Transaction confirmation time is less than 1 second, suitable for high-frequency payments and settlements.
- Privacy protection: Provide privacy protection services that comply with regulatory requirements.
- Integration with the Circle ecosystem: Seamless integration with USDC, Circle Payments, and the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
Arc's application scenarios encompass cross-border payments, foreign exchange settlement, asset tokenization, and digital asset custody. For example, in this Arc public beta, Visa is testing stablecoin payment infrastructure, BlackRock is exploring on-chain foreign exchange and stablecoin settlement, Invesco is researching the efficiency of tokenized funds, and HSBC is focusing on faster and more transparent international payments.
Circle said that Arc's ultimate goal is to evolve into a decentralized, community-governed public infrastructure, and plans to open up validator participation and establish an open governance framework.
