Circle has launched the mainnet of Arc, a layer-1 blockchain that uses USDC as the asset for transaction fees. Cointelegraph reported that Arc targets stablecoin payments and financial markets, especially agent-based trading. Arc is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and offers sub-second payment finality. It supports more than 20 fiat stablecoins and provides tokenised assets such as BlackRock’s BUIDL and Circle’s USYC in native form.

Circle has introduced native USDC and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) on OKX’s Ethereum layer2 network X Layer. Users can use Circle-issued USDC directly and transfer it across supported blockchains. X Layer is an EVM-compatible network, allowing Ethereum applications to run with relatively few changes. CCTP burns USDC on the origin chain and mints the same amount on the destination chain.