Circle Releases Arc Whitepaper: Introduces "Economic OS" Layer 1, with ARC as the Native Coordination Asset

Odaily Odaily Circle has released its latest whitepaper, "ARC: The Native Asset of the Economic OS," formally proposing a public Layer 1 blockchain named "Arc." Positioned as the internet's "Economic Operating System (Economic OS)," it aims to unify the underlying infrastructure for stablecoins, tokenized assets, and global on-chain markets.

Arc will provide deterministic settlement, stablecoin-denominated gas fees, configurable privacy, and institutional-grade validator mechanisms, forming a complete tech stack through USDC cross-chain capabilities, payment networks, and development tools. According to official disclosure, the Arc testnet has processed over 244 million transactions since its launch in October 2025, with the mainnet planned for release in the summer of 2026.

The whitepaper focuses on introducing the native token ARC, defined as the network's "coordination asset," which assumes functions such as staking, governance, fee distribution, and ecosystem incentives. ARC will secure the network through a staking mechanism and drive a long-term supply-demand model via fee conversion and burn mechanisms.

In terms of economic design, ARC has an initial total supply of 10 billion tokens, adopting a model with a starting inflation rate of 2%–3% that gradually declines. The plan aims to achieve a deflationary balance in the long term where "fee burns offset issuance." All on-chain transaction fees will be uniformly converted into ARC, distributed between validators and stakers, with a portion being burned.

Regarding governance, ARC holders will participate in voting on key economic parameters (fees, inflation, burn mechanisms, etc.), while Circle retains primary control over protocol development and compliance execution in the early stages, gradually transitioning to decentralized governance over time.

Circle emphasizes that Arc's core goal is to build a "programmable global economic layer," enabling stablecoins, financial protocols, and on-chain applications to operate in synergy within a unified settlement environment, with ARC serving as the coordination and incentive core of the system.