Circle names BlackRock, Visa as initial partners for Arc blockchain

Circle just pulled off something that most crypto projects only dream about: getting the biggest names in traditional finance to show up on day one.

The USDC stablecoin issuer launched the public testnet for Arc, its purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain, on October 28, 2025. The initial partner list reads like a who’s who of institutional heavyweights, with BlackRock, Visa, AWS, and even AI company Anthropic among over 100 participants from finance, payments, and technology sectors.

What Arc actually is, and why it matters

Arc is engineered for a narrow but enormous set of use cases: tokenized funds, cross-border payments, foreign exchange trading, and lending.

The early performance numbers are striking. In its first 90 days, the testnet processed over 150 million transactions with an average settlement time of approximately 0.5 seconds. For context, traditional cross-border wire transfers can take anywhere from one to five business days.

Visa’s involvement goes beyond simply lending its name to a press release. The payments giant plans to operate an Arc validator node and enhance its USDC settlement capabilities on the network.

The money behind the mission

Circle raised $222 million through an Arc token presale in May 2026, achieving a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. The funding round attracted a16z crypto and Apollo.

BlackRock’s growing crypto footprint

The inclusion of Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, signals that Arc’s ambitions extend beyond traditional financial services into the intersection of AI and payments.

What this means for investors

Investors should watch for three things in the coming months. First, the mainnet launch timeline and whether the performance metrics hold up under real economic activity. Second, how many of the 100-plus testnet participants convert to mainnet validators and active users. Third, whether the Arc token generates meaningful secondary market interest beyond the presale investors.

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