$ACH Alchemy Chain is a Layer1 blockchain launched by Alchemy Pay for cross-border payments and merchant settlement with stablecoins. It uses a PoA (Proof of Authority) consensus and focuses on fast settlement and controllable gas fees. The native gas token is $ACH .
✅ Current progress
1. Timeline
- February 2026: Testnet goes live. Test addresses exceed 160,000, and developer deployments for testing are opened.
- May 7, 2026: Mainnet officially launches. Positioned as a dual-compliance payment chain designed to be compatible with the EU MiCA and the HKMA stablecoin framework.
2. Technology and supporting ecosystem
- EVM-compatible. Includes the block explorer AchScan and a companion wallet AchWallet. Comes with fiat on/off-ramp channels (Alchemy Pay’s existing global payment network covering 170+ countries).
- PoA consensus: transactions achieve near-instant finality. The CGFS controllable gas-fee system makes costs predictable, making it suitable for merchant batch settlement, cross-border remittances, and trade finance/foreign trade settlement scenarios.
3. Compliance and business rollout
Alchemy Pay’s parent company holds payment licenses in multiple countries: MTL across multiple U.S. states, as well as qualifications in Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, and more.
Roadmap planning: first strengthen the regulatory foundation in Hong Kong, then expand into Europe. After that, issue on-chain native USD stablecoins. It plans to roll out cross-border merchant payment use cases across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Africa, aiming to reduce cross-border payment costs by 70%-80%.
⚠️ Current operational weaknesses (core status)
1. After mainnet launch, the real on-chain transaction volume is still small. The number of publicly verifiable active on-chain transactions and independently developed DApps in the ecosystem is limited, and it is still in an early cold-start phase. There has not yet been large-scale real merchant settlement traffic; currently, the focus is mainly on building the developer ecosystem and onboarding partners.
2. PoA architecture: validator nodes are controlled by institutions/partners, leading to a high degree of centralization. This differs from the decentralized public chain design philosophy of chains like Ethereum. It is a consortium-style blockchain designed for compliant commercial payments.
3. Token risk: $ACH is the on-chain gas token. There are large amounts of currently uncirculated tokens, creating potential token-release and dilution risks. Liquidity in the secondary market is weak, price volatility is extremely high, and the drop from its all-time high has been massive.
4. Intense competition: competitors in the stablecoin settlement track include XRP, XLM, Circle’s Arc chain, and others—there is significant competitive pressure.
Although the technology and mainnet infrastructure are already live and the compliance licensing reserves are its biggest advantage, the ecosystem and real business transaction volume are still in the early stage.
✅ Current progress
1. Timeline
- February 2026: Testnet goes live. Test addresses exceed 160,000, and developer deployments for testing are opened.
- May 7, 2026: Mainnet officially launches. Positioned as a dual-compliance payment chain designed to be compatible with the EU MiCA and the HKMA stablecoin framework.
2. Technology and supporting ecosystem
- EVM-compatible. Includes the block explorer AchScan and a companion wallet AchWallet. Comes with fiat on/off-ramp channels (Alchemy Pay’s existing global payment network covering 170+ countries).
- PoA consensus: transactions achieve near-instant finality. The CGFS controllable gas-fee system makes costs predictable, making it suitable for merchant batch settlement, cross-border remittances, and trade finance/foreign trade settlement scenarios.
3. Compliance and business rollout
Alchemy Pay’s parent company holds payment licenses in multiple countries: MTL across multiple U.S. states, as well as qualifications in Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, and more.
Roadmap planning: first strengthen the regulatory foundation in Hong Kong, then expand into Europe. After that, issue on-chain native USD stablecoins. It plans to roll out cross-border merchant payment use cases across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Africa, aiming to reduce cross-border payment costs by 70%-80%.
⚠️ Current operational weaknesses (core status)
1. After mainnet launch, the real on-chain transaction volume is still small. The number of publicly verifiable active on-chain transactions and independently developed DApps in the ecosystem is limited, and it is still in an early cold-start phase. There has not yet been large-scale real merchant settlement traffic; currently, the focus is mainly on building the developer ecosystem and onboarding partners.
2. PoA architecture: validator nodes are controlled by institutions/partners, leading to a high degree of centralization. This differs from the decentralized public chain design philosophy of chains like Ethereum. It is a consortium-style blockchain designed for compliant commercial payments.
3. Token risk: $ACH is the on-chain gas token. There are large amounts of currently uncirculated tokens, creating potential token-release and dilution risks. Liquidity in the secondary market is weak, price volatility is extremely high, and the drop from its all-time high has been massive.
4. Intense competition: competitors in the stablecoin settlement track include XRP, XLM, Circle’s Arc chain, and others—there is significant competitive pressure.
Although the technology and mainnet infrastructure are already live and the compliance licensing reserves are its biggest advantage, the ecosystem and real business transaction volume are still in the early stage.