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 t...