Circle, a publicly traded US company and the issuer of USDC stablecoin, said it will launch its own 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 โenterprise-grade foundationโ for stablecoin payments, foreign exchange and capital markets applications.
Expected to launch in public testnet this fall, Circleโs Arc will feature USDC (USDC) as its native gas token, enabling users to pay transaction fees on the new network with 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.
โFull-stack platform for the internet financial systemโ
According to Circle, its upcoming Arc blockchain is โpurpose-built for stablecoin finance,โ marking a major milestone in the companyโs mission to deliver a โfull-stack platform for the internet financial system.โ
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 notes, adding:
โArc will be fully integrated across Circleโs platform and services, which will also remain fully available and interoperable with the dozens of other partner blockchains that Circle supports.โ
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.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
Magazine: How Ethereum treasury companies could spark โDeFi Summer 2.0โ
