Circle Releases Arc Whitepaper – What Are the Early Interaction Opportunities?

Original by Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author: Asher (@Asher_0210)

Last night, stablecoin issuer Circle officially released its Q1 2026 financial report (for more details, see: Breaking Down Circle's Q1 Earnings: As Interest Rate Tailwinds Fade, USDC Prepares for a Bigger Game). Compared to conventional financial metrics like revenue, profit, and USDC circulation, what particularly caught the crypto community’s attention—especially making "airdrop farmers" sensitive—was Circle's disclosure in the report that its payment network Arc has completed a $222 million ARC token presale, at a valuation of $3 billion. The investor lineup includes renowned institutions such as a16z, BlackRock, Intercontinental Exchange, Standard Chartered, and SBI. It is rare in the crypto industry to see so many traditional financial institutions collectively betting on a single public chain.

Additionally, during tonight's earnings call, when asked whether "ARC tokens will have a broader distribution in the future," Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated: "Our core focus right now is on pushing forward the launch of the Arc mainnet (coming soon) and driving the network's utility and growth. What we shared in the ARC token whitepaper is that 60% of the tokens are specifically allocated for ecosystem grants, airdrops, and other incentive programs, which is what Circle and the broader community hope to see over time. Clearly, there will be more opportunities regarding the deployment of ARC tokens—especially for that 60% portion—in the future."

Next, Odaily Planet Daily will quickly guide you through understanding Arc, interpreting the whitepaper for the public chain Arc released by Circle last night, and the early-stage interaction and token airdrop opportunities still available to participate in.

A Layer 1 Blockchain Specifically Designed for Stablecoins, Launched by Circle

Arc is a next-generation EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain launched by Circle, the "leading stablecoin issuer," designed to create an economic operating system for the internet, deeply integrating programmable stablecoins with on-chain financial innovation. Arc is purpose-built for financial applications, focusing on global payments, foreign exchange, lending, and capital markets. Its goal is to provide a secure, low-cost, compliant, and scalable foundational settlement layer for the internet's programmable money.

Arc aims to solve three major pain points existing public chains face in enterprise and institutional-grade financial applications: insufficient high-frequency transaction performance, lack of privacy and compliance support, and excessive volatility in transaction fees. By optimizing the architecture and adopting a stable fee model, Arc will deliver an efficient financial-grade transaction experience and drive the evolution of stablecoins from "digital dollars" into the core infrastructure for global payments, lending, foreign exchange, and capital markets.

Key Takeaways from the Arc Whitepaper

The ARC token is the network's native coordination asset (a utility-driven token), used to align the long-term interests of participants, and is not a representation of Circle equity or profit sharing. Its specific functions are as follows:

• Economic Alignment: Staking + Delegation, providing network security, earning fees/inflation rewards;
• Governance: Holders participate in decisions regarding economic parameters (e.g., fees, inflation, burns);
• Fee Capture: The protocol layer converts fees into ARC (partially burned, rewards validators and stakers), where network activity directly drives demand and deflation;
• Platform Utility: Holding/Staking ARC provides gas discounts, priority access to services, ecosystem perks, etc.;
• Extended Utility Surface: Future support for multi-chain coordination, multi-asset gas, dedicated transaction channels, etc.

Furthermore, the initial total supply of ARC is 10 billion tokens, with specific allocation details as follows:

• Ecosystem: 60% of total supply. This portion covers token sales, developer grants, network growth initiatives, and broader participation mechanisms.
• Circle Team: 25% of total supply. This portion ensures Circle's economic interests are clearly aligned with the network's long-term success, while also allowing Circle to directly participate in staking and governance, and manage ecosystem-related programs.
• Long-term Reserve: 15% of total supply. This portion provides the network with a buffer resource for unknown circumstances. It can be deployed in cases of market imbalance, used to fund critical infrastructure, or support network stability during periods of stress.

Arc Tokenomics Model

A Step-by-Step Guide to Participating in Arc Early-Stage Interactions

Currently, Arc has not announced the token generation date, and it remains in its early stages. Here are several angles for interaction:

First, test tokens can be claimed from the Circle Faucet (link: https://faucet.circle.com/).

First, for developers, you can directly access the Arc Docs (link: https://docs.arc.network/), which includes connecting to the Arc Testnet RPC, deploying contracts, testing USDC gas, sending stablecoins, performing bridging operations (in/out), and using the App Kit, among other activities officially listed for participation.

Second, for project teams, you can apply for Circle Developer Grants (link: https://www.circle.com/grant), which primarily supports areas like AI Agent payments, stablecoin FX, P2P payments, treasury management, prediction markets, and lending.

Third, for most regular users, you can participate in the community event previously launched by Arc. The social activities have five levels with corresponding requirements:

• Architects Level 1: Over 500 points;
• Architects Level 2: Over 3,500 points;
• Architects Level 3: Over 15,000 points;
• Architects Level 4: Over 40,000 points;
• Architects Level 5: Over 90,000 points.

Participating in this community event at zero cost and achieving a higher level could potentially secure a larger allocation in future new token offerings. Go to the interaction website (link: https://community.arc.network/), register using a Google email (some users report that accounts previously registered via Google email for the community event cannot log in now) or a LinkedIn account, complete verification, and log in.

Ways to earn points include:

• Daily Active: Earn 5 points;
• Create a Post: Earn 10 points (1 time);
• Comment/Reply: Earn 5 points (2 times);
• Accept Answer: Earn 30 points (1 time);
• Read Content: Earn 5 points (max 5 times);
• Watch Video: Earn 5 points (1 time).

More advanced tasks include:

• Publish an Article: Earn 200 points;
• Become a Video Speaker: Earn 500 points;
• Become an Event Speaker: Earn 500 points;
• Arc Core Meetup Host: Earn 1,500 points.

Finally, join the official Discord server and complete the verification process to gain entry and potentially secure early role identifiers (link: https://discord.com/invite/buildonarc).