Circle Taps Visa, Mastercard and BlackRock as Validators for September Arc Launch
Circle will launch the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain on September 16 and named a founding validator group dominated by major financial firms, including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, ICE, Galaxy, Standard Chartered, and others. Arc is already in private mainnet with over 100 builders; its testnet has handled more than 500 million transactions across nearly 3 million wallets. Day-one support includes Aave, Morpho, Uniswap, and access via Binance Wallet, Kraken, Ledger, and MetaMask, with gas paid in USDC. In Q2, Circle reported revenue and reserve income of $701 million, up 7% year over year, net income of $48 million versus a large loss a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA of $143 million. USDC circulation rose 19% to $73.3 billion, while on-chain transaction volume jumped 151% to $14.8 trillion. Circle also said its payments network reached $14.7 billion in annualized volume, with 175 institutions enrolled, and it doubled full-year guidance for other revenue to $310 million-$330 million.
