The cryptocurrency sector is undergoing a structural shift, with top players successively establishing self-controlled blockchain infrastructure. Following Coinbase’s integration of user resources into an ecosystem advantage through its Base chain, Robinhood and eToro have also announced plans to build their own chains. In this trend, constructing an independent underlying public chain has evolved from an option to a "strategic necessity."
Today, key developments are emerging in the global payments landscape. Payments giant Stripe and USDC stablecoin issuer Circle have disclosed plans to develop their own L1 public chains—Tempo and Arc, respectively. This move reflects a clear strategic shift: they are no longer solely reliant on third-party blockchain infrastructure but are instead building a complete technical system from the underlying protocol to the settlement layer. Leveraging their deep积累 in the enterprise payments market, this initiative by both parties will further drive specialization and competition intensity in the crypto settlement arena.
Circle is a globally leading stablecoin issuer, with its USDC stablecoin dominating the market. According to Q2 2025 financial reports, Circle’s total revenue and reserve income grew 53% year-over-year to $658 million, while its USDC stablecoin continued to perform strongly, with a market capitalization of $65.6 billion and a circulating supply increase of 90% year-over-year. Against the backdrop of Circle’s impressive financial data, the launch of the Arc blockchain project alongside the earnings report indicates that Arc is a critical component of Circle’s post-listing growth strategy and responds to the growing opportunities in the stablecoin market.
The Arc blockchain aims to address pain points in general-purpose blockchain environments, such as unpredictable transaction costs and data privacy concerns, providing customized solutions for enterprises and institutions. It is explicitly designed as "built for stablecoin finance," with core features including:
Openness and Compatibility: Full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling seamless migration for developers.
Native USDC Integration: USDC is not only a core asset but also the network’s native Gas token, directly pegging transaction costs to the U.S. dollar value to ensure low and predictable fees.
High Performance and Privacy: The network achieves sub-second transaction finality through the Malachite consensus engine to ensure high performance—while offering optional privacy controls to meet enterprises’ needs for protecting sensitive transaction data.
Scenario Focus: Arc aims to serve as critical underlying support for international payments, remittances, stablecoin forex contracts, and on-chain credit infrastructure. By supporting the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), the chain is committed to migrating traditional capital market operations on-chain and enabling efficient Delivery versus Payment (DvP) and collateral mechanisms.
Full Circle Platform Integration: Native support for Circle Payment Network (CPN), USDC, EURC, USYC, Mint, Wallet, Contracts, CCTP, Gateway, Paymaster, and more.
The launch of Arc is a key move by Circle to advance vertical integration and build a "full-stack internet financial system." Its business philosophy is "strategic profit concession"—Circle focuses on collecting thin-profit settlement fees at the network layer, ceding more application-layer revenue to ecosystem partners in exchange for the broadest network effects. Arc is expected to significantly accelerate the penetration of stablecoins into mainstream finance, thereby reshaping the operations of global payments and capital markets.
