Circle Internet Group has unveiled an aggressive solution centered on Arc, its Layer 1 blockchain designed to serve as an “economic operating system” for global finance.
The company aims to move Arc from testnet to production while scaling its Circle Payments Network and StableFX applications to capture enterprise market share in stablecoin-powered settlement.
The strategy comes as Circle faces growing competition from Tether, which generated $5.2 billion in revenue in 2025 and now controls 60.1% of the $311 billion stablecoin market via USDT.
Circle’s USDC has a 24.2% market share with a circulation of $72.4 billion, significantly behind despite 108% year-over-year growth.
We are moving towards an Internet financial system through Arc, USDC, Circle Payments Network and our interoperability services that connect them. The goal is simple: to make money movements and value exchanges efficient, programmable and accessible worldwide. Read our product…— Nikhil Chandhok (@chandhok) Arc Testnet processes 150 million transactions
Arc’s public testnet has processed more than 150 million transactions since its launch in October 2025, with nearly 1.5 million transaction wallets and average settlement times of around 0.5 seconds, according to Circle’s latest product update.
The network attracted more than 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Société Générale and Visa in its first 90 days.
Nikhil Chandhok, Circle’s chief product and technology officer, said the company is working to be production-ready by “scaling the validator set to greater distribution” and “putting in place a governance model that aligns with institutional expectations around risk and compliance.”
The blockchain uses USDC as its native gas token and provides sub-second deterministic finality specifically designed for regulated financial operations.
The company has integrated Arc into its cross-chain transfer protocol, which now connects 19 blockchains and has processed $126 billion in cumulative volume as of December 2025.
Circle introduced Gateway, a chain-agnostic system that unifies USDC balances across networks, and launched Build, a suite of AI development tools alongside App Kits, to accelerate application development. Source: CircleTether Dominance and Federal Push Pressure Circle Market Position
Circle’s business offensive comes as Tether expands beyond stablecoins into traditional finance, recently accumulating 140 tons of gold worth $23 billion and launching USAT, a federally regulated stablecoin under the new U.S. GENIUS Act framework.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg that the company will “soon become one of the largest gold central banks in, say, the world,” while buying more than a ton per week.
Tether became the most profitable crypto entity in 2025, capturing 41.9% of all stablecoin-related revenue and maintaining its position as the world’s third-largest digital asset with a market value of $186.8 billion. Source: Coingecko
The company holds more U.S. Treasuries than Germany, South Korea or Australia, reinforcing its role as a macroeconomic player.
Meanwhile, Circle’s Circle Payments Network has enrolled 29 financial institutions since its launch in May 2025, with 55 under review for eligibility and 500 in preparation.
The network operates in eight countries and has reached $3.4 billion in annualized trading volumes, in partnership with Binance, Corpay, FIS, Fiserv and OKX. Major Financial Institutions Signal Blockchain Regulation Change
BlackRock is hiring for its next phase of crypto expansion, posting digital assets roles in New York, London and Singapore with managing director positions offering up to $350,000 per year.
The asset manager accepted its BUIDL tokenized fund as collateral at Binance and identified Bitcoin exposure as a core portfolio building block for 2025.
Visa also announced in December 2025 that it would enable U.S. financial institutions to settle transactions using USDC on Solana, providing “seven-day uptime and improved resiliency during weekends and holidays.”
The first participants, Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, are already establishing themselves with Visa in USDC, with a wider rollout in the United States planned until 2026.
“Financial institutions are gearing up to use stablecoins as part of their treasury operations,” said Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa.
The payments giant serves as a design partner for Arc and plans to operate a validator node once the blockchain launches.
💳 Visa Inc. is set to allow stablecoin-based settlement on its US payments network, expanding its range of crypto-related services. – Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews)
Circle’s partnership strategy extends to Asia, where the company signed a memorandum of understanding with LianLian Global in December 2025 to explore stablecoin-backed payments infrastructure for international merchants.
The collaboration will evaluate how USDC can “support faster and more resilient transactions, particularly in high-volume international payment flows,” according to the announcement.
The company’s tokenized money market fund, USYC, has grown more than 200% since June 2025 to approximately $1.6 billion in assets as of January 2026, while StableFX launched on Arc testnet to enable 24/7 institutional stablecoin trading.
Circle reported net profit of $214 million for the third quarter of 2025, as USDC circulation jumped to $73.7 billion.
Chandhok highlighted that Arc and the broader platform aim to make “value movements with the same openness, reliability, determinism and speed as information,” positioning Circle to compete as stablecoins become “the connective tissue of the global digital economy.”
