Circle Launches Arc Testnet With BlackRock, Visa, and AWS — A New Era for Onchain Finance?

Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) has launched the public testnet for Arc, its open Layer-1 blockchain designed to bring more economic activity ￰1￱ Public Testnet is now ￰2￱ to developers and enterprises globally, Arc is the Economic OS for the internet that unites programmable money and onchain innovation with real-world economic ￰3￱ building: ￰0￱ Learn more:… ￰4￱ — Arc (@arc) October 28, 2025 In a press release, Circle explains Arc is positioned as a new “Economic Operating System” for the internet, it combines predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack ￰5￱ network has already attracted collaboration from more than 100 institutions across global finance and technology — including BlackRock, Visa, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) — along with major capital markets, banks, and fintech ￰6￱ and enterprises can now deploy, test, and build applications on Arc as Circle aims to create a unified, programmable financial infrastructure for the global ￰7￱ CEO Jeremy Allaire described Arc as “purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy,”highlighting its mission to enable faster, more inclusive, and internet-native financial ￰8￱ and Capital Markets Join the Testnet Arc’s early partners include some of the world’s largest financial institutions and asset managers — among them Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, State Street, and Apollo Global ￰9￱ participants will experiment with tokenized assets, lending, and programmable FX settlement on the ￰10￱ to Robert Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, the project offers “insight into how stablecoin-denominated settlement and onchain FX could enable more efficient capital markets.” Expanding the Onchain Payments Beyond capital markets, Arc’s testnet features integration with global payments and fintech leaders such as Mastercard, Nuvei, Brex, Cloudflare, FIS, and ￰11￱ network aims to power cross-border payments, merchant settlements, and programmable finance — including use by AI-driven autonomous agents to send, exchange, and settle value in real time.

Visa’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, said the company is exploring how Arc’s design — integrating stablecoin-based gas fees and deterministic finality — could “help scale emerging onchain infrastructure.” The Road to Decentralized Governance While Circle is currently stewarding Arc’s early development, the company plans to transition toward distributed, community-driven ￰12￱ network’s roadmap includes expanding validator participation and establishing transparent frameworks to ensure open, verifiable operations. Ultimately, Circle envisions Arc as a shared, neutral layer of economic infrastructure — a blockchain backbone for global finance that bridges regulated institutions, fintech innovators, and decentralized ￰13￱ major players like BlackRock, Visa, and AWS already onboard, Arc’s testnet marks a decisive step toward making onchain finance ￰14￱ Action Shares of Circle Internet Group Inc.

(NYSE: CRCL) climbed 7.2% over the past month, closing at $143.29 on Monday amid renewed investor optimism surrounding the company’s blockchain expansion ￰15￱ stock opened at $146.93, trading between a monthly low of $138.10 and a high of $147.44, with a current market capitalization of $32.95 ￰16￱ the pre-market price shows a slight dip to $141.57 (-1.20%), Circle’s recent momentum reflects growing confidence in the company’s long-term strategy to become a core infrastructure provider for the digital asset economy. Arc’s launch marks a strategic evolution for Circle, best known as the issuer of USDC, one of the world’s leading ￰17￱ new blockchain aims to serve as a foundation for tokenized assets, onchain payments, and programmable finance, integrating directly with Circle’s existing products and ￰18￱ have interpreted the Arc testnet launch — and its backing by major financial institutions — as a signal that Circle is deepening its role in bridging traditional finance and blockchain ￰19￱ suggest that the company’s partnerships with BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, and Société Générale through Arc could attract institutional liquidity and strengthen Circle’s positioning in the onchain settlement ￰20￱ broader crypto sector has also shown signs of renewed activity, with sentiment improving after the approval of multiple digital asset ETFs and growing institutional participation in blockchain infrastructure.