Circle is launching the Arc public mainnet this Wednesday, positioning the Layer 1 network as institutional infrastructure for payments, foreign exchange, and tokenized securities. The project features 11 founding validators, including major financial institutions like BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, Galaxy, SBI Group, and Standard Chartered.
The network utilizes USDC for gas fees instead of a native token. Circle previously raised $222 million during an Arc token presale, which valued the project at $3 billion. The issuer of USDC currently maintains a market capitalization of $74.2 billion for its stablecoin.
Speculators are currently preparing for the launch, anticipating a surge in meme coin trading similar to the activity seen on the Robinhood Chain. Launched in July, the Robinhood Chain saw record decentralized exchange volumes, peaking at $3.7 billion earlier this month, with 16,639 tokens created in a single day.
