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USDC issuer Circle to launch new layer-1 Arc blockchain this year

Circle, a publicly traded US company and the issuer of USDC stablecoin, said it will launch a layer-1 (L1) blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) later this year.

The company released its second-quarter results on Tuesday and announced the introduction of Arc, a new network designed to offer an “enterprise-grade foundation” for stablecoin payments, foreign exchange and capital markets applications.

Expected to launch in public testnet, Circle’s Arc will feature USDC 

USDC$0.9997as its native gas token, enabling users to paytransaction feeswith the stablecoin.

Alongside the launch of Arc, Circle disclosed a 53% year-over-year increase in total revenue and reserve income in Q2, reaching $658 million.

“Full-stack platform for the internet financial system”

According to Circle, its upcoming Arc blockchain is “purpose-built for stablecoin finance,” marking a major milestone in the company’s mission to deliver a “full-stack platform for the internet financial system.”

In addition to featuring USDC as native gas, Arc will provide an integrated stablecoin foreign exchange engine, sub-second settlement finality and opt-in privacy controls, the announcement said, adding:

“Arc will be fully integrated across Circle’s platform and services, which will also remain fully available and interoperable with the dozens of other partner blockchains that Circle supports.”

At the time of writing, USDC had a $65.6 billion market capitalization, with the stablecoin running on a total of 24 networks.

Ethereum is now the largest network for USDC, with total USDC supply on the network amounting to $42.6 billion, according to Circle data.

Net loss of $482 million impacted by IPO

Reporting on quarterly financial performance, Circle mentioned that its Q2 net loss amounted to $482 million — a massive 93% increase from around $33 million in Q4 2024.

The net loss in Q2 was significantly impacted by expenses from Circle’s initial public offering (IPO), the company mentioned, referring to $591 million in IPO-related non-cash charges.

Data from Circle’s unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations. Source: Circle

The charges specifically included $424 million for stock-based compensation related to vesting conditions and another $167 million increase in the fair value of convertible debt caused by the increase in Circle’s (CRCL) share price.

After raising $1.05 billion in an IPO, Circle debuted public trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5 at the price of $69 per share.

The stock experienced a meteoric rise soon after listing, surging to an all-time high of $292.8 on June 23, according to TradingView data.

Circle (CRCL) price chart since listing on NYSE. Source: TradingView


The stock has been losing steam since, closing at $161.2 on Monday, down more than 21% over the past 30 days.

Blockchain race in crypto and TradFi

Circle’s Arc announcement marks the growing trend for launching new blockchain networks by major crypto industry companies and institutions in traditional finance.

On Monday, Fortune reported that fintech giant Stripe is building a new blockchain network called Tempo in collaboration with the crypto venture capital platform Paradigm.

In late June, crypto-friendly trading app Robinhood officially announced the launch of a layer-2 (L2) blockchain focused on tokenization.

Previously, global e-commerce company Shopify launched early access to USDC stablecoin payments on Coinbase’s L2 network Base in mid-June.

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