Circle unveils Arc founding validators as public mainnet launch nears

Circle said Arc, its compliance-first blockchain for institutional finance, will open its public mainnet on September 16, 2026 with Circle and 11 outside founding validators including BlackRock, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Visa. The USDC issuer said Arc is already in private mainnet with more than 100 builders, its testnet has processed more than half a billion transactions across nearly 3 million wallets, BlackRock is expected to deploy its BUIDL tokenized money market fund on the network and DTCC is working on a second-half 2027 link for tokenized assets it custodies. Gas on Arc will be paid in USDC. The validator announcement came with second-quarter results showing total revenue and reserve income of $701 million, reserve income of $668 million, net income of $48 million and adjusted EBITDA of $143 million. USDC circulation ended the quarter at $73.3 billion and on-chain transaction volume reached $14.8 trillion, while Circle said final OCC approval for Circle National Trust gives it a federal bank charter for digital asset custody and could eventually let it manage USDC reserves directly. Circle Payments Network annualized volume reached $14.7 billion in the quarter and $23 billion by July 31, and the company raised full-year guidance for other revenue partly on recognized revenue from the ARC token presale.