Circle Launches Arc Public Testnet

A New Economic Operating System for the Internet Opens with Over 100 Launch and Design Participants

NEW YORK — October 28, 2025 — Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL:NYSE) (Circle) today announced the launch of the public testnet for Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain network designed to meet the needs of developers and companies bringing more economic activity onchain. The launch arrives with broad-based engagement and collaboration from more than one hundred companies across the financial and economic system, deep infrastructure support, and global participation. Arc is now available for developers and enterprises to deploy, test and build on what Circle describes as the new Economic Operating System (“OS”) for the internet.

Arc represents a major step forward in building open, programmable financial infrastructure for the global economy. Featuring predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack platform, Arc enables a wide range of use cases across lending, capital markets, foreign exchange (FX), and global payments.

“With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test. Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments, and support local economies across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle. “Arc presents the opportunity for every type of company to build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure—advancing a shared vision that a more open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system can be built natively on the internet.”

The Arc Ecosystem is Growing

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Capital Markets 

At the very foundation of our economic system are markets for capital—including equity, fixed income and derivatives, and the crucial clearing and custody infrastructure that power them. Upgrading the financial system onto a new economic operating system paves the way for significant improvements in efficiency, innovation, and reach. 

Leading capital markets firms engaging with Arc include: Apollo (APO:NYSE), BNY (BK:NYSE), Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE:NYSE), State Street (STT:NYSE).

Banks, Asset Managers, and Insurers

Retail and institutional banks, as well as asset managers and insurers, are crucial purveyors of capital, credit, investing, payments, and treasury infrastructure worldwide. Opportunities in payments, lending, asset issuance, and capital markets are rapidly expanding onchain.

Leading banks and asset managers engaging with Arc include: Absa (ABG:JSE), Bank Frick, BlackRock Inc. (BLK:NYSE), BTG Pactual (BPAC11:B3), Clearbank, Commerzbank (CBK:FWB), Deutsche Bank (DB:NYSE), Emirates NBD (EMIRATESNBD:DFM), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB:ADX), FirstRand Bank (FSR:JSE), Fiserv (FI:NYSE), Goldman Sachs (GS:NYSE), HSBC (HSBA:LSE), Invesco (IVZ:NYSE), Kyobo Life, SBI Holdings (8473:TSE), Société Générale (GLE:EPA), Standard Chartered (STAN:LSE), WisdomTree (WT:NYSE).

Global Payments, Technology, and Fintech Ecosystem

One of the killer applications on Arc is payments, which builds on the value of a general-purpose Economic OS and enables frictionless payment utility for people, businesses, and institutions around the world. That same architecture extends to agentic AI systems, enabling a future where autonomous agents are programmatically sending, exchanging, and settling value globally in real time. A broad array of technology and payment-focused firms spanning global technology leaders, fintechs, cross-border payments providers, retail payment networks, B2B payments, remittances, and e-commerce platforms are engaging with Arc, including: Amazon Web Services (AWS) (AMZN:NASDAQ), Brex, Careem, Catena Labs, Cloudflare (NET:NYSE), Corpay (CPAY:NYSE), dLocal (DLO: NASDAQ), Dmall, Ebanx, FIS (FIS:NYSE), Hecto Financial, LianLian, Mastercard (MA:NYSE), Mercoin, Noah, Nuvei (NVEI:NYSE), Pairpoint by Vodafone (VOD:LSE), Paysafe (PSFE:NYSE), PhotonPay, Ramp, Sasai Fintech – a business of Cassava Technologies, Sumitomo Corporation (8053:TSE), Visa (V:NYSE), Yellow Card.

Stablecoins and Asset Issuers

Arc provides core infrastructure for issuers of fiat stablecoins, tokenized equities, credit funds, and money market funds. Central to this is Arc’s roadmap for stablecoins as tokens for gas fees, as well as native infrastructure that will be deployed on Arc for core stablecoin swaps and FX liquidity.  

Digital asset issuers from key geographies—including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Korea—joining Arc for testnet include:

• AUDF issued by Forte Securities
• BRLA issued by Avenia
• JPYC issued by JPYC Inc.
• KRW1 issued by BDACS
• MXNB issued by Juno (a Bitso company)
• PHPC issued by Coins.PH
• QCAD issued by Stablecorp

Circle is engaging a broad set of stablecoin issuers and stakeholders—including dollar, euro, and other global digital asset issuers—to bring their assets onto Arc. 

Enabling Developers

Leading ecosystem players providing developer tooling and blockchain infrastructure that are joining Arc for testnet include:

• Digital Wallets: Bron, Exodus, Fireblocks, Hecto Innovation, Ledger, MetaMask, Privy, Rainbow, Turnkey, Vultisig connect Arc into desktop and mobile app experiences. 
• Developer Tools: Alchemy, Chainlink, Crossmint, Dynamic, Fun.xyz, LayerZero, Pimlico, Thirdweb, ZeroDev support builders with frameworks and kits.
• AI: Building on Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK to enrich the developer experience on Arc with AI-powered dev tools
• Crosschain: Across, Stargate, Wormhole connect Arc to other blockchain networks.
• Infrastructure: Blockdaemon, Blockscout, Bridge, Elliptic, Quicknode, Ramp Network, Tenderly, Transak, TRM help keep Arc accessible, performant, compliant, and reliable.

Digital Asset Markets and Liquidity

Foundational to Arc are major protocols, venues, and services that are central to existing digital asset markets including exchanges, market makers, OTC desks, borrow/lend, and yield protocols. Participants engaging with Arc include:

• DEXs: Curve, Dromos Labs (Aerodrome, Velodrome), Eular Finance, Fluid, Uniswap Labs provide decentralized trading and liquidity pools.
• CEXs: Bitvavo, ByBit, Coinbase (COIN:NASDAQ), Coincheck (CNCK:NASDAQ), Hashkey, Kraken, Robinhood (HOOD:NASDAQ) expand access points into the Arc ecosystem.
• Market Makers and OTCs: Auros, B2C2, Cumberland, Galaxy Digital (GLXY:NASDAQ), GSR, IMC, Forte Securities, Keyrock, NONCO, Wintermute, Zodia Markets provide efficient access to liquidity globally.
• Borrow/Lend: Aave, Maple, Morpho enable credit and capital efficiency with stablecoins and tokenized assets.
• Yield: Centrifuge, Superform, Securitize power stablecoin-native yield opportunities.
• Tokenized Fund Issuers: WTGXX and CRDT by WisdomTree (WT:NYSE) provide access to yield-bearing tokenized investment funds.
• Custodians: BitGo, Copper, Taurus, Zodia Custody provide digital asset storage for institutions.

The Path to Distributed Governance

The launch of Arc’s public testnet marks the beginning of a network designed to evolve into a distributed, community-driven system. While Circle is stewarding the initial development and operation of Arc, the long-term vision is for the network to be operated and governed by a broad, globally distributed set of participants — including financial institutions, technology platforms, infrastructure providers, and protocol developers building on Arc who contribute to its growth and integrity.

This progression will include expanding validator participation, establishing transparent and verifiable governance frameworks, and enabling community involvement in network evolution. The goal for Arc is to become the shared, neutral layer of economic infrastructure for the internet — open, cryptographically accountable, and collectively operated.

From our Testnet Participants

“As the digital asset ecosystem evolves, we’re focused on how emerging infrastructure can support tokenized markets and institutional liquidity,” said Robert Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock. “Exploring Arc will provide insight into how stablecoin-denominated settlement and onchain FX capabilities might enable more efficient capital markets and unlock additional utility for onchain assets.”

“At BNY, we’re committed to building the infrastructure of the future by bringing together the traditional and digital financial ecosystems", says Patrick Corker, Head of Digital Cash, Collateral and Payments at BNY. "As we work to enable our clients to accelerate their growth and run their businesses faster and more efficiently - exploring Arc will provide valuable insights."

“We are focused on applications of distributed technologies that have the potential to drive meaningful, positive impact to financial markets – from post-trade efficiency to intraday liquidity and collateral mobility,” said Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs. “We’re excited to be part of an initiative that tests how programmable settlement and interoperable FX workflows can enhance regulated markets”

“At HSBC, we’re focused on helping our clients move money across borders with greater speed, transparency and security.” said Manish Kohli, Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC “We are keen to explore how Arc can enable best practices and new technical infrastructure to help make global payments more efficient and connected, while upholding the rigorous standards our clients rely on.”

“At Invesco, we’re exploring how blockchain infrastructure can advance the tokenization of funds and assets in a secure and compliant way,” said Kathleen Wrynn, Global Head of Digital Assets at Invesco. “We are excited to partner with Circle on the public testnet design of Arc to explore how their purpose-built blockchain for financial services can support the future of asset management infrastructure in ways that ultimately benefit our clients.”

“Circle’s launch of Arc is a meaningful step toward advancing programmable money and digital financial infrastructure,” said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard. “Deepening our longstanding work with Circle as an early design partner, Mastercard is exploring how we can help shape Arc’s foundation to enable secure, simple payment experiences across both fiat and stablecoin rails.”

“Our focus is on helping merchants move money globally with less friction, from checkout to settlement and payouts,” said Phil Fayer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Nuvei. “We’re evaluating Arc’s capabilities—sub-second finality, predictable dollar-based fees, and a built-in FX layer—to see how they might support faster merchant funding and multi-currency onchain payouts while maintaining the compliance and reliability our customers expect.”

“SBI Group continues to explore technologies that can enhance efficiency, transparency, and interoperability across global financial systems,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBI holdings. “Arc’s EVM-compatible architecture, deterministic settlement, and support for stablecoin-denominated transactions present an interesting framework for testing how regulated institutions might extend trusted financial services into onchain environments.”

“As a global cross-border bank focused on connecting clients to fast-evolving digital financial infrastructure, we’re always exploring innovations that can safely enhance transparency, efficiency, and reach across markets,” said Geoff Kot, Global Head, CIB Business Platforms & Partnerships at Standard Chartered. “We are pleased to play our part in powering Arc which presents an interesting framework for how trusted financial institutions might transact and interoperate more seamlessly in a programmable, onchain environment.”

“As a global bank focused on financing innovation and supporting the evolution of digital infrastructure, we’re interested in how blockchain-based systems can enhance efficiency and trust across capital markets,” said Andrew Johnman, Managing Director, Co-Head of Technology Banking at Société Générale. “Exploring Arc offers a valuable opportunity to assess how settlement and programmable payment networks could enable more transparent, resilient, and connected financial ecosystems.”

“As institutional interest in digital assets continues to grow, we’re exploring how next-generation infrastructure could enhance the security, transparency, and efficiency of custody and settlement,” said Zahid Mustafa, Head of Digital Asset Custody at State Street. “Arc’s focus on deterministic finality, auditable privacy, and stablecoin-denominated settlement presents a valuable opportunity to assess how trusted custodians can interact with onchain networks in an enterprise-grade environment.”

“Visa is expanding our work with stablecoins and next-generation blockchain networks to enhance global payments and money movement,” said Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, Visa. “Arc’s design - integrating stablecoin -based gas fees, deterministic finality, and programmable interoperability offers a strong environment to explore how trusted payments networks can connect to and help scale emerging onchain infrastructure.”

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About Circle Internet Group, Inc.

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of digital currencies and public blockchains for payments, commerce, and financial applications worldwide. Circle is building the world’s largest, most-widely used, stablecoin network, and issues, through its regulated affiliates, USDC and EURC stablecoins. Circle provides a comprehensive suite of financial and technology services that empower enterprises and developers to integrate stablecoins and blockchains into their products, services and business operations. For more information please visit https://circle.com.

Disclaimers:

Arc testnet is offered by Circle Technology Services, LLC (“CTS”). CTS is a software provider and does not provide regulated financial or advisory services. You are solely responsible for services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws.

Arc has not been reviewed or approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The product features described in these materials are for informational purposes only. All product features may be modified, delayed, or cancelled without prior notice, at any time and at the sole discretion of Circle Technology Services, LLC. Nothing herein constitutes a commitment, warranty, guarantee or investment advice.