Summary
The new Economic OS for the internet is available for public testing, with broad-based engagement and collaboration from major sectors of the global financial system and onchain economy, deep infrastructure support, and global participation.
In August, we announced Arc1, an open Layer-1 blockchain network designed to meet the needs of developers and companies bringing real-world economic activity onchain. We believe we are at an inflection point where scalable, globally distributed blockchain networks become broadly used in a wholesale shift of economic activity to the internet. With this, we view Arc as the Economic OS for the internet, fostering a platform shift as profound as the launch of the internet itself, and subsequent revolutions of social, mobile, cloud, and AI.
Today, we’re taking the next major step in our roadmap. Arc is now live in public testnet and open to all developers and enterprises to deploy, test, and build on the new Economic OS.
The Arc ecosystem is taking shape
With today’s public testnet launch, we’re proud to share that leading companies across major sectors of the global financial system and onchain economy are already engaging in the early Arc ecosystem. Collectively, these organizations manage hundreds of trillions in assets, facilitate vast global payment flows, and power billions of transactions every day.
Spanning the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, the geographic diversity of testnet participants highlights a defining strength of Arc: it’s purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy. As the Economic OS for the internet, 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.
Stablecoins and asset issuers
Arc is designed as a foundation for issuers of fiat stablecoins, along with tokenized equities, credit, money market funds, and more. Central to this is Arc’s roadmap for stablecoins as tokens for gas payments, as well as native infrastructure that will be deployed on Arc for core stablecoin swaps and FX liquidity.
Currency issuers from key geographies — Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines — who are joining for Arc Testnet include:
- AUDF issued by Forte AUD
- BRLA issued by Avenia
- JPYC issued by JPYC Inc.
- KRW1 issued by BDACS
- MXNB issued by Juno (a Bitso company)
- PHPC issued by Coins.PH
- QCAD issued by Stablecorp
In addition to these global currency issuers, Circle is engaging with a wide range of stablecoin issuers and stakeholders — including issuers of dollar-, euro-, and other fiat-backed stablecoins — to bring their assets to Arc. Stay tuned for more details on upcoming Arc platform enhancements designed for stablecoin-based gas fees, FX, and cross-stablecoin liquidity and interoperability, which are key themes and focuses for the emerging internet financial system.
Enabling developers
The day-one experience for developers is essential, and we are pleased to have many leading ecosystem players that provide developer tools and blockchain infrastructure to help bring applications and solutions to Arc. Testnet participants include:
- AI: Anthropic enriching the developer experience on Arc with Claude Code-powered builder tools.
- Digital Wallets: Bron, Exodus, Fireblocks, Hecto Innovation, Ledger, MetaMask, Privy, Rainbow, Turnkey, and Vultisig connect Arc into desktop and mobile app experiences.
- Developer Tools: Alchemy, Chainlink, Crossmint, Dynamic, Fun.xyz, LayerZero, Pimlico, thirdweb, and ZeroDev support builders with frameworks and kits.
- Crosschain: Across, Stargate, and Wormhole connect Arc to other blockchain networks.
- Infrastructure: Blockdaemon, Blockscout, Bridge, Elliptic, Quicknode, Ramp Network, Tenderly, Transak, and TRM help keep Arc accessible, performant, compliant, and reliable.
Digital asset markets and liquidity
Foundational to Arc are major protocols, venues, and services that are central to existing digital asset markets including exchanges, market makers and OTCs, and borrow/lend and yield protocols. Participants engaging with Arc include:
- DEXs: Curve, Dromos Labs (Aerodrome, Velodrome), Euler Finance, Fluid, and Uniswap Labs provide decentralized trading and liquidity pools.
- CEXs: Bitvavo, ByBit, Coinbase, Coincheck, Hashkey, Kraken, and Robinhood expand access points into the Arc ecosystem.
- Market Makers and OTCs: Auros, B2C2, Cumberland, Galaxy Digital, GSR, IMC, Forte Securities, Keyrock, NONCO, Wintermute, and Zodia Markets provide efficient access to liquidity globally.
- Borrow/Lend: Aave, Maple, and Morpho enable credit and capital efficiency with stablecoins and tokenized assets.
- Yield: Centrifuge, Superform, and Securitize power stablecoin-native yield opportunities.
- Tokenized Fund Issuers: WTGXX and CRDT by WisdomTree provide access to yield-bearing tokenized investment funds.
- Custodians: BitGo, Copper, Taurus, and Zodia Custody provide digital asset storage for institutions.
Global payments, technology, and fintech ecosystem
One of the key applications on Arc is payments, which builds on the value of a general-purpose Economic OS and enables more frictionless payment utility for people, businesses, and institutions around the world. That same architecture extends to agentic AI systems, enabling a future where autonomous agents are programmatically sending, exchanging, and settling value globally in real time. We are pleased to have such a broad array of technology and payments-focused firms spanning global technology leaders and fintechs, cross-border payments, retail payment networks, B2B payments, remittances, ecommerce, and more engaging with us on Arc, including:
Amazon Web Services, Brex, Catena Labs, Careem, Cloudflare, Corpay, dLocal, Dmall, Ebanx, FIS, Hecto Financial, LianLian Global, Mastercard, Mercoin, Nuvei, Noah, Pairpoint by Vodafone, Paysafe, PhotonPay, Ramp, Sasai Fintech — a business of Cassava Technologies, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa, WorldPay, and Yellow Card.
Capital markets
At the very foundation of our economic system are markets for capital, including equity and derivatives markets and the clearing and custody infrastructure that powers these markets. Upgrading the financial system to the new Economic OS paves the way for significant improvements in the efficiency, innovation, and reach of markets. We are pleased to have leading capital markets firms engaging with us on Arc, including:
Apollo, BNY, NYSE / ICE, and State Street.
Banks, asset managers, and insurers
Banks and asset managers are crucial purveyors of capital, credit, investing, payments, and treasury infrastructure to people and businesses all around the world. The opportunities in lending, asset issuance, capital markets, payments, and insurance are all expanding onchain, and with that we are pleased to have leading banks, asset managers, and insurers experimenting with us on Arc, including:
Absa, Bank Frick, BlackRock Inc, BTG Pactual, Clearbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand, Fiserv, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Invesco, Kyobo Life, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Société Générale, and WisdomTree.
This roster of companies and projects engaging with us on Arc testnet lays a powerful foundation for a vibrant Arc ecosystem. Their early exploration and contributions will help enable Arc to deliver on the promise of a new internet financial system with robust day-one tools, infrastructure, applications, and utility.
The path to distributed governance
The launch of Arc’s public testnet marks the beginning of a network that will evolve into a distributed, community-driven system. While Circle is stewarding the initial development and operation of Arc, our long-term vision is for the network to be operated and governed by a broad, globally distributed set of participants, including many of the financial institutions, technology platforms, infrastructure providers, and protocol developers building on Arc who contribute to its growth and integrity.
This progression will include expanding validator participation, establishing transparent and verifiable governance frameworks, and enabling community participation in network evolution. The goal for Arc is to become the de facto shared, neutral layer of economic infrastructure for the internet — open, cryptographically accountable, and collectively operated.
Start building today
Arc’s public testnet provides an open environment to pressure test performance, harden security, and stand up integrations before real money moves on mainnet.
As Arc's first testnet, it’s experimental and rapidly evolving, and may experience both planned and unplanned downtime as we build together in the open and iterate in real time. Your feedback and collaboration are invaluable in helping us refine and strengthen Arc.
Developers can run real workloads and help test Arc’s foundational components, including:
- Low, predictable fees: USDC as native gas, with plans to support multiple stablecoins in the future
- Deterministic sub-second finality: Instant settlement secured by Malachite, a highly performant BFT consensus engine
- Docs, RPCs, and block explorer: Available today to learn, integrate, test, analyze, and explore your Arc applications (see docs)
On top of these core capabilities, Arc testnet also directly integrates Circle’s full-stack platform, enabling you to build and test applications using Circle’s stablecoins, liquidity services, crosschain infrastructure, and developer tools for wallets and smart contract development.
With these foundations in place, we invite developers to put Arc through its paces, including: (1) Deploying smart contracts and testing transaction flows; (2) Launching tokens to test swaps and interactions across assets; (3) Conducting crosschain transfers between Arc and other networks; and (4) Validating wallet operations and user experiences using USDC as gas.
Overall, we welcome all builders to share frequent and detailed feedback on our documentation, tooling, and UX.
What’s next
In the months ahead, we’ll continue to ship features and integrate products that optimize Arc as a global-scale Economic OS. Our plans include expanded support of Circle platform services like Circle Payments Network, enshrined paymasters for EURC and other stablecoins as gas, more native FX features, and opt-in configurable privacy for confidential balances and transactions.
During this time, we’ll all be active on Discord and X and sharing progress, supported products and protocols, and enabling this incredible ecosystem of collaborators to prepare for ultimate liftoff with Arc mainnet in 2026.
Join us in architecting the future of the internet economy. Start building on Arc now.
1. Arc testnet is offered by Circle Technology Services, LLC (“CTS”). CTS is a software provider and does not provide regulated financial or advisory services. You are solely responsible for services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws. Arc has not been reviewed or approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The product features described in these materials are for informational purposes only. All product features may be modified, delayed, or cancelled without prior notice, at any time and at the sole discretion of Circle Technology Services, LLC. Nothing herein constitutes a commitment, warranty, guarantee or investment advice.
2. USYC is a digital asset token. Each USYC token serves as a digital representation of a share of the Hashnote International Short Duration Fund Ltd. (the “Fund”), a Cayman Islands registered mutual fund. The Fund has appointed Circle International Bermuda Limited (“CIBL”), a Bermuda Monetary Authority licensed digital asset business, as its token administrator, responsible for the management of USYC on behalf of the Fund. Shares of the Fund and USYC are only available to non-U.S. Persons, as defined under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Additional eligibility restrictions may apply. The information provided herein is solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, financial instrument, or other product.
3. Circle Mint and money transmission services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. Circle Internet Financial, LLC, NMLS # 1201441, is a licensed provider of money transmission services. See the full list of Circle’s licenses. Circle Mint is currently available only to institutions and is not available to individuals.
USDC and EURC are issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. A list of Circle’s regulatory authorizations can be found on our licenses page.