Circle has officially launched Arc, a new blockchain infrastructure specifically engineered to support artificial intelligence agents acting as economic participants. The platform integrates directly with Circle’s existing ecosystem, including the USDC stablecoin, to facilitate automated financial operations.
According to company data, USDC currently accounts for 98.8% of transaction volume driven by AI agents. Since the introduction of Circle’s Agent Stack in May, the majority of agent-to-agent payments utilizing the x402 standard have been settled using the stablecoin.
CEO Jeremy Allaire described the launch as the most significant development for the company since the creation of USDC. The network is designed to provide infrastructure that operates continuously and settles transactions in under one second.
Recent research from PYMNTS Intelligence indicates that 132 million U.S. adults have already utilized AI for retail purchases. While adoption is growing, consumer caution remains, with only 24% of respondents willing to grant agents full authority to both research and complete purchases.
