USDC issuer Circle plans to launch a new layer 1 blockchain called Arc, with the public testnet expected to go live this fall and the mainnet beta set for a 2026 rollout.

Arc is designed to be an enterprise-grade platform focused on stablecoin payments, foreign exchange, and capital markets applications.

It will be Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible, allowing easy integration with Ethereum-based applications, and use USDC as its native gas token.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The Arc whitepaper claims performance targets for the network are processing 3,000 transactions per second (TPS) and settlement finality under 350 milliseconds using 20 validators, with higher speeds possible in certain configurations.

“One truth has become clear: the industry needs blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for stablecoin finance,” said Circle.