Circle names a Wall Street-heavy validator roster and sets Arc mainnet date as Q2 results show growth and profit Circle will push the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain live on September 16, 2026, and has tapped a founding validator cohort made up largely of traditional finance giants. The lineup — announced alongside Circle’s Q2 results — includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Circle itself. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called the group “a cohort of network validators no other network can match.” Why it matters - The presence of BlackRock and DTCC signals a major TradFi on-ramp for tokenized cash and securities. BlackRock plans to deploy BUIDL, its tokenized money market fund, on Arc, while DTCC intends to use Arc to enable tokenization of assets it custodies (targeted for the second half of 2027). - Arc is already in private mainnet with more than 100 builders. Circle says its testnet has processed over 500 million transactions across nearly 3 million wallets — a throughput and user base aimed at winning institutional trust. - Day-one DeFi support will include Aave, Morpho and Uniswap, and wallets and access providers at launch will include Binance Wallet, Kraken, Ledger and MetaMask. Gas fees on Arc will be paid in USDC. Q2 results: growth, profitability and more USDC utility Circle reported total revenue and reserve income of $701 million for Q2 — up 7% year-over-year and slightly above the prior quarter, though short of the $770 million booked in Q4 2025. Reserve income grew 5% to $668 million, while the reserve return rate dropped 66 basis points to 3.5%. The company swung to net income of $48 million, a sharp improvement from a $482 million loss a year earlier (which was skewed by IPO stock compensation). Adjusted EBITDA was $143 million, up 8%. Key metrics and business developments - USDC supply: $73.3 billion, up 19% QoQ. - On-chain transaction volume: $14.8 trillion, up 151% QoQ. - Circle’s share of the fiat-backed stablecoin market edged down to 27%. - Circle renewed its distribution agreement with Coinbase on the same terms, leaving intact the $410 million in distribution and transaction costs recorded in the quarter. Regulatory and infrastructure milestones Last month Circle secured final OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust, making it one of the first stablecoin issuers to hold a federal bank charter; it also holds a limited-purpose trust charter from New York regulators. The federal charter authorizes regulated digital-asset custody and opens the path for Circle to manage the USDC reserve directly. Allaire described the infrastructure bank as a vehicle to extend Circle’s payments and capital-markets infrastructure globally. Payments network and revenue guidance The Circle Payments Network (CPN) continues to scale: it reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume in the quarter (up 76% QoQ) with 175 financial institutions enrolled, and that figure climbed to $23 billion by July 31. Circle also roughly doubled its full-year guidance for “other revenue” to $310–$330 million (from $150–$170 million), attributing part of the increase to recognized revenue from the ARC token presale. Bottom line Arc’s launch on September 16 — backed by some of finance’s biggest names and a strong roster of DeFi apps and wallets — solidifies Circle’s push to bridge TradFi and crypto rails. Combined with improving profitability, rising USDC circulation and a federal charter in hand, Circle is positioning Arc and USDC as infrastructure for a growing “internet financial system.” Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news