Circle launches Arc public testnet with over 100 institutional participants including BlackRock, Visa and Anthropic

Circle Internet Group has launched the public testnet for Arc, its new Layer 1 blockchain built to support large-scale financial and enterprise applications onchain.

Framed as an “Economic Operating System for the internet,” Arc boasts participation from over 100 organizations across banking, capital markets, payments, and technology, the firm said on Tuesday, with the testnet now live for developers and enterprises to deploy, test, and build applications on the network.

“With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test,” Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. “Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments, and support local economies across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy.”

According to Circle, Arc features predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with the company’s full-stack platform. The network aims to provide enterprise-grade infrastructure for a range of use cases spanning global payments, capital markets, foreign exchange, and lending.

Fresh off the back of its successful $1.2 billion IPO, Circle first unveiled plans for the stablecoin-focused Layer 1 blockchain in August, using USDC as its native gas token.

Circle is the second-largest stablecoin issuer, accounting for $76 billion of the approximate $292 billion total U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin supply, per The Block’s data dashboard. Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein recently backed Circle to deliver the most dominant stablecoin network amid its Arc blockchain plans.

Broad institutional participation

The Arc testnet launch has drawn engagement from leading institutions across multiple sectors. In capital markets, participants include Apollo, BNY Mellon, Intercontinental Exchange (owner of NYSE), and State Street. Banks, asset managers, and insurers joining the testnet span Absa, BlackRock, BTG Pactual, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, Fiserv, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Invesco, SBI Holdings, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, and WisdomTree.

Circle said Arc’s architecture supports real-time, frictionless payments for businesses and institutions, and could eventually enable autonomous AI systems to exchange and settle value globally. Payments and technology participants include Amazon Web Services, Visa, Mastercard, Cloudflare, Brex, FIS, Nuvei, Paysafe, and Vodafone’s Pairpoint.

Arc also provides native infrastructure for stablecoin and tokenized asset issuance, with fiat-denominated tokens such as Forte Securities’ AUDF, Avenia’s BRLA, JPYC Inc.’s JPYC, BDACS’ KRW1, Juno’s MXNB, Coins.ph’s PHPC, and Stablecorp’s QCAD participating in the testnet. Circle said it is engaging with a wide range of other stablecoin issuers and global stakeholders to bring dollar, euro, and additional fiat tokens onto Arc.

Developer and market infrastructure

The network’s developer ecosystem includes key infrastructure and tooling providers such as Alchemy, Chainlink, LayerZero, Thirdweb, and QuickNode, alongside wallet support from MetaMask, Fireblocks, Ledger, and Turnkey. Circle said it is also working with Anthropic, whose Claude Agent SDK is being used to enhance the developer experience on Arc with AI-powered tools. Additionally, cross-chain protocols, including Wormhole and Stargate, are integrating with Arc to connect it to other blockchains, while exchanges and liquidity providers such as Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, and Wintermute are engaging with the testnet to build out trading and market functionality.

Circle said Arc’s design aims to combine high-performance infrastructure with regulatory-grade compliance and risk management, making it suitable for institutions operating across traditional and digital finance. The network’s roadmap includes expanding validator participation and developing transparent governance frameworks to transition Arc toward community-driven operation.

“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,” Allaire said.