Arc Mainnet Goes Live
Arc has officially launched its public mainnet, introducing a blockchain built for stablecoin payments, financial markets, tokenized assets and onchain applications.
Arc Officially Launches Its Public Mainnet
Circle has officially launched Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for financial markets, real-time money movement and what Circle describes as the emerging “agentic economic” era. The public mainnet went live on September 16, 2026, following a period of private-mainnet testing involving more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders.
Source: Arc Official Announcement
A Blockchain Built Around USDC
One of Arc's defining features is its approach to transaction fees. Rather than requiring users to hold a separate native gas token, Arc uses USDC for network fees. Circle says the network is designed around predictable fees, sub-second transaction finality and infrastructure intended for payments, foreign exchange, tokenized assets and other financial applications.
Source: Arc Mainnet Overview
Robinhood Becomes Part of the Arc Ecosystem
Robinhood is among the companies and platforms listed by Arc as part of its day-one ecosystem. Circle's launch announcement identifies Robinhood alongside trading and liquidity infrastructure including 1inch, Uniswap and other market-access platforms. This places Robinhood among the organizations participating in Arc's initial financial ecosystem.
Source: Robinhood announcement on X
More Than 100 Builders and Institutions at Launch
Arc launched with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders, spanning banks, asset managers, payment networks, exchanges, custodians, DeFi protocols, wallets and AI platforms. The founding validator group announced ahead of mainnet includes major financial institutions such as BlackRock, DTCC, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered and others.
Source: Circle / Arc Validator Announcement
Arc Targets Institutional and Onchain Finance
The network is positioned toward financial applications rather than being designed solely as a general-purpose blockchain. Arc highlights use cases including stablecoin payments, foreign exchange, tokenized real-world assets, lending, trading and institutional financial markets. At launch, applications such as Aave and Morpho are part of Arc's onchain credit ecosystem.
Source: Arc Mainnet Ecosystem
A Growing Network of Wallets and Infrastructure
Arc's launch also includes support from major wallet and infrastructure providers. Circle lists Binance Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Gate Web3, Ledger, MetaMask, OKX Wallet, Phantom, Rainbow and Trust Wallet among the wallets supporting Arc, while infrastructure providers such as Chainlink, Alchemy, Blockdaemon and QuickNode are also included in the ecosystem.
Source: Arc Official Mainnet Announcement
The Connection With the Robinhood Ecosystem
The arrival of Arc comes during a period in which Robinhood has been expanding its blockchain strategy. Robinhood's involvement with Arc creates another connection between a major consumer-facing financial platform and infrastructure designed specifically around stablecoins, tokenized assets and onchain financial markets. The two ecosystems remain separate blockchain networks, but their participation in the broader onchain financial infrastructure landscape creates an important point of overlap.
Source: Robinhood X Post
Arc Introduces Tools for Developers
Alongside the mainnet launch, Circle introduced tools intended to simplify development on Arc. Arc Studio is described as an onchain coding agent that can help generate applications and smart contracts, while Arc App Kitsprovides SDK functionality for common onchain flows such as payments, swaps, onramps and yield.
Source: Arc Mainnet Launch Announcement
The Roadmap Extends Beyond the Initial Launch
Circle's roadmap for Arc includes a planned transition toward proof of stake, as well as proposed network sectors focused on privacy, payments and agent activity. Circle has also completed the genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens as a technical milestone, while explicitly stating that the mint does not represent a commitment to a public ARC token launch.
Source: Arc Roadmap and Mainnet Announcement
A New Chapter for Onchain Financial Infrastructure
With its public mainnet now live, Arc enters the market with a combination of stablecoin-based transaction fees, institutional participation, financial applications, developer infrastructure and connections to established companies such as Robinhood. The network's development will now depend on how these integrations and applications evolve as Arc moves from its launch phase into broader public usage.
Source: Arc Mainnet Is Live