Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL:NYSE) has recently announced the launch of the public testnet for Arc, which is described as an open L1 blockchain network intended to meet the needs of developers and companies bringing more economic activity to an onchain ecosystem. The launch arrives with engagement and collaboration from over 100 firms across the financial and economic sector, extensive infrastructure support, and international participation.
Arc is meant for developers and enterprises to deploy, test and build on what Circle describes as the new Economic Operating System (OS) for the internet.
Arc is said to represent a step forward in building more open, programmable financial infrastructure for the digital economy.
Supporting “predictable” dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s platform, Arc supports various use cases across lending, capital markets, foreign exchange, and international payments.
At the foundation of the economic system are markets for capital—including equity, fixed income and derivatives, and the clearing as well as custody infrastructure that enable them.
Updating the existing financial system onto another economic operating system paves the way for enhancements in efficiency and reach.
Capital markets companies engaging with Arc include: Apollo , BNY, Intercontinental Exchange Inc, State Street.
Retail and institutional banks, along with asset managers and insurers, are purveyors of capital, credit, investing, payments, and treasury infrastructure.
Different opportunities in payments, lending, asset issuance, and capital markets are now said to be expanding onchain.
Various banks and asset managers engaging with Arc include the following: Absa, Bank Frick, BlackRock Inc., BTG Pactual, Clearbank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, among others.
One of the applications on Arc is payments, which builds on the value of a general-purpose Economic OS and enables “payment utility for people, businesses, and institutions.”
That architecture extends to agentic AI systems, “enabling a future where autonomous agents are programmatically sending, exchanging, and settling value globally in real time.”
An array of tech and payment-focused companies spanning global technology providers, fintechs, cross-border payments providers, retail payment networks, B2B payments, remittances, e-commerce platforms are engaging with Arc, including: Amazon Web Services, Brex, Careem, Catena Labs, Cloudflare, among others.
Arc offers core infrastructure for issuers of fiat based stablecoins, tokenized equities, credit funds, as well as money market funds.
Key to this is Arc’s roadmap for stablecoins as tokens for gas fees, and infrastructure that is to be deployed on Arc for core stablecoin swaps as well asFX liquidity.
Digital asset issuers from various geographies—such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Korea—joining Arc for testnet include:
- AUDF issued by Forte Securities
- 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
Circle is engaging stablecoin issuers and stakeholders—including dollar, euro, and other digital asset issuers—to bring assets onto Arc.
