USDC for Gas: Circle Arc mainnet online, BlackRock (BLK.US) enters

According to Woofun AI, Circle officially launched the Arc L1 blockchain main network. The network is specially designed for stablecoin payments and financial markets. The core innovation is to establish USDC as a built-in gas token to build an efficient transaction environment based on a proxy mechanism.

The Arc mainnet revealed technical details via a blog post on Wednesday, is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and provides sub-second final confirmation. Currently, the network supports more than 20 fiat stablecoins, including USDC, EURC, JPYC, KRW1, and TRYB, and integrates BLK.US's BUIDL Token and Circle's USYC Token.

Woofun AI collates data and shows that using the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) and gateway, Arc has achieved interoperability with more than 20 other blockchains, opening up a critical path for asset flow.

CEO Jeremy Allisle defined the launch as “the most significant product launch in history since the inception of USDC,” and Circle emphasized on the X platform its commitment to building a proxy economic environment for programmable currencies and global markets. The infrastructure was designed specifically for developers and institutions. As early as October 2025, when the testnet was launched, it attracted more than 100 companies such as BlackRock (BLK.US), Goldman Sachs (GS.US), Mastercard (MA.US), and Visa (V.US) to participate; until the private mainnet testing phase in August, the number of participating institutions and builders remained at over 100.

The future roadmap shows that Arc plans to gradually expand the scope of ecological participation and plans to move from Proof of Authority (Proof of Authority) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism in 2027. Circle completed the initial minting of 100 million ARC tokens this week, but clearly stated that this move does not necessarily entail a public offering, marking a cautious step for the underlying stablecoin protocol towards decentralized governance.