Circle has added proxy payments through its Facilitator Service, giving developers building on the x402 protocol a hosted access path for USDC transactions. The service processes on-chain settlement across Arc, Base and Polygon without requiring Relayer keys or a separate wallet to fund gas fees. The update extends Circle’s managed x402 infrastructure beyond Arc Portal, which lets users fund agent wallets, set global and per-service spending limits, impose contract or chain allowlists, and delegate time-bounded onchain tasks. Circle launched Arc’s public mainnet on September 16, 2026, positioning the network as an open Layer 1 for financial markets, real-time money movement and agentic economic activity. x402 recorded 75.41 million transactions and $24.24 million in payment volume over the previous 30 days at the time of research, although both figures were protocol-wide rather than Arc-specific.