Circle will open the public mainnet of Arc on Sept. 16, bringing its open blockchain network for global financial markets into public access. Arc is a Layer 1 focused on stablecoin finance. At launch, it will use USDC for gas, finalize transactions in one second, and run on a permissioned validator set.
Robinhood Chain pushed daily DEX volume to $989 million within two months of launch, raising expectations for the next institution-oriented chain. With Arc nearing public access, the immediate question is where the first wave of traffic will go. Meme projects have already started trading, while launchpads and DeFi protocols are lining up to capture token issuance, swaps and lending activity on day one.
Founding validators and institutional plans are already in place
On Aug. 5, Circle named 11 founding validators for Arc: BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Visa. Arc is still in its private mainnet stage, and Circle says more than 100 institutions and ecosystem teams are already building on the network.
BlackRock is expected to deploy its BUIDL fund, the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, on Arc. That would allow institutional investors to subscribe, redeem and deploy capital in a native USDC environment.
Circle and DTCC plan to start advancing the tokenization of assets held at the Depository Trust Company from the second half of 2027. The stated goal is to let market participants settle related tokenized assets with stablecoins through third-party applications built on Arc. BNY and Standard Chartered are also exploring integrations tied to digital asset custody, foreign exchange and repo infrastructure.
Testnet activity and the private mainnet have already produced early signals
In its first 90 days after the public testnet launch, Arc processed more than 150 million transactions, with about 1.5 million wallets initiating transactions. After the private mainnet went live in May, the network identified as chain ID 5042 began to show community RPC endpoints, block explorers, trading venues and tokens.
Those tokens already have quoted prices and liquidity, but Circle still defines the network as a private mainnet. Public network access is scheduled for Sept. 16, while mainnet parameters for the official cross-chain tool have not yet been released.
Fomo and edgeX commit to day-one support, while Aave V4 still needs governance approval
Fomo co-founder Se Yong Park said on Aug. 30 that Fomo will support trading on Arc on the first day of launch. Fomo combines token discovery, social activity and cross-chain trading within one account. In April, the project disclosed that its mobile app had reached 500,000 registrations.
Fomo has not yet detailed the first batch of Arc-supported tokens, trading routes or liquidity sources. The app already supports Solana, Robinhood Chain, BNB Chain, Base, Ethereum and Monad, letting users view other accounts’ trades, track profit and loss, and buy tokens across chains. Once Arc is added, that front end can direct existing users straight to Arc asset pages. Whether trades can happen on day one without a bridge still depends on the routing setup and funding entry points that Fomo has yet to publish.
edgeX said on Sept. 3 that it has become a day-one Arc launch partner. It plans to start with a 24-hour USD/JPY FX perpetual and offer more than 150 perpetual markets spanning U.S. equities, commodities and crypto assets. Margin, settlement and fees will all use native USDC. Circle Ventures has invested in edgeX, and the two sides had previously worked on native USDC and CCTP integration on EDGE Chain.
Circle expects Arc to connect with Aave, Aerodrome, FalconX, Galaxy, GSR, Keyrock, Morpho, Nonco, Uniswap and XFX on public mainnet launch day. Rain, Thunes and Wirex are listed for stablecoin payments, while Binance Wallet, Chainlink, Fireblocks, Kraken, Ledger, MetaMask, Uniswap Labs and Upbit are slated to provide wallet, trading and infrastructure support.
Aave Labs submitted a governance proposal in June to deploy Aave V4 on Arc, with USDC, EURC, WETH and cirBTC markets planned around the mainnet launch window. That deployment still has to complete the Aave governance process.
Based on the line-up, Uniswap and Aerodrome are positioned to handle spot swaps and liquidity pools, while Aave and Morpho would take on collateralized lending. FalconX, GSR, Keyrock and Nonco are among the institutions expected to provide market making and capital allocation. Arc’s initial gas model, major trading pairs and lending assets are all centered on USDC. Whether launch-day funds spread across meme pools, stablecoin pools and lending markets will shape slippage and borrowing capacity across the network.
Meme projects are already separating into tiers as launchpads compete for issuance flow
On Sept. 1, the Chinese community account ARC Chinese Research Station published a roundup of popular Arc meme tokens, with Architects, FatCatBatRatWifHat, COOL and WARP all landing in its top five. According to Arcodex data, Architects, COOL and FatCatBatRatWifHat had market capitalizations of about $2.79 million, $2.31 million and $1.16 million, with liquidity of about $90,800, $105,300 and $60,500, respectively. Their 24-hour trader counts stood at 105, 193 and 73.
WARP and BEANCAT had market capitalizations of about $890,900 and $864,500, while liquidity in both pools was below $46,000.
One design feature stands out on Arc: USDC serves as both the gas asset and the quote asset for trading. Users do not need to hold another native token before creating, buying or selling tokens. In response, launchpads have generally wired USDC directly into bonding curves or liquidity pools, though they differ on how prices are formed, who controls LP positions, and how fees are distributed.
Tolly routes all supply straight into a permanently locked USDC pool
Tolly is already running a launchpad and DEX on chain ID 5042. New projects do not go through a bonding curve. Instead, the full token supply is placed directly into a permanently locked USDC liquidity pool. The platform charges a 1% fee on each trade. Of the USDC fees generated on buys, 64% goes to creators, 12% to holder rewards, 10% to the protocol, and the rest is used to buy back and burn TOLLY and the corresponding project token. Token fees generated on sells are fully burned.
Warp uses a bonding curve and migrates tokens after a $69,000 market cap
Warp uses a bonding curve model. Once a token reaches a $69,000 market capitalization, it migrates to WarpDex and its LP is burned. Its cross-chain purchase module is designed to use Circle CCTP to burn USDC on Ethereum, Base and Arbitrum, mint it on Arc, and complete the buy automatically. The Arc-side contracts are already deployed, but as of Sept. 3 the source-chain contracts were still not live.
Arcpad sends tokens to Uniswap V3 immediately after creation
Arcpad has presented a different structure on the public testnet. After a token is created, it goes straight into Uniswap V3 without waiting for a graduation threshold or migration. The platform charges a 1% trading fee, split equally by default between the protocol and the creator, though creators can allocate part of their revenue to holders. Arcpad has also disclosed that its contracts have not yet undergone a professional audit.
Tolly, Warp and Arcpad are all independent projects at this stage. Circle has not endorsed their products or tokens.
Market data and issuance infrastructure are emerging, but token identity may get messy
RadarDEX currently provides market data and issuance infrastructure in the Arc ecosystem, and its data is used by front ends such as Arcodex. Its built-in launcher creates and locks liquidity through Uniswap V3. Sharc has chosen a bonding-curve model with LP burned after graduation, and has explicitly said it has not issued a platform token.
As more launchpads appear, tokens with the same name and ticker may be deployed more than once. In that setting, contract addresses become the only reliable way to distinguish one asset from another.
Circle is also preparing a broader product set for Sept. 16
Circle plans to release a package of related products on Sept. 16 as well. That list includes a composable application framework for onchain workflows, AI-driven tools for building apps and smart contracts, issuance management for tokenized real-world assets, and interfaces for developers, users and AI agents.
Once the public mainnet opens, official cross-chain inflows, DEX liquidity, lending deposits and active addresses will begin to produce verifiable mainnet data. The day-one products promised by Fomo and edgeX will face their first live market test on the same date.
