Circle’s newly launched Arc blockchain, built to handle payments, tokenized assets, and institutional financial activity with backing from some of the world’s largest financial institutions, was quickly dominated by speculative memecoin trading on its first day.

Arc went live on September 16 2026 with a founding validator group that includes

  • BlackRock,

  • VISA,

  • MasterCard,

  • the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation,

  • ICE,

  • MoneyGram,

  • Standard Chartered

and other major financial firms.

 

Circle Raises Over $200 Million for the Arc Blockchain Token Presale

 

Circle described the network as its most significant launch since USDC, positioning it as infrastructure for institutional finance and an emerging machine-driven economy.

But speculative traders quickly became the most visible users of the new network.

Arc processed about 7.83 million transactions in its first 24 hours while lifetime USDC transfers stood at roughly 624,000, according to Arc’s Blockscout explorer, suggesting that the bulk of early activity was not related to the payments use case the network was designed to support.

The network also attracted about 400,000 new accounts and more than 73,000 deployed contracts.

Decentralized exchange activity reached roughly $82 million on the first day with newly launched memecoins accounting for much of the speculative activity. Several of the most actively traded tokens subsequently fell sharply from their launch highs including TOLLY, LONG, and COOL.

The episode echoes the experience of Robinhood Chain, another blockchain pitched around institutional financial applications that saw memecoin trading dominate early activity. Robinhood Chain recorded about $878 million in DEX volume during its own memecoin-driven surge in July 2026.

 

CASE STUDY | This Protocol Activity Provides Strong Indication of Where the Market Sees the Opportunity

 

Circle’s challenge is therefore less about whether Arc can process transactions – the network has been operating with sub-second finality and without congestion – and more about what type of economic activity it ultimately attracts.

The network launched with more than 100 applications and institutional and ecosystem builders.

  • AAVE,

  • Morpho, and

  • Uniswap

are among the protocols available, while

  • BlackRock’s BUIDL and

  • Circle’s USYC

are among the tokenized funds being brought onto the chain.

 

MILESTONE | Circle Overtakes BlackRock to Become the Largest Issuer of Tokenized Assets

 

Circle is also developing infrastructure for confidential institutional transactions and AI agents.

 

Circle’s product chief for Arc also drew criticism after posting an AI-generated image promoting a memecoin associated with CEO, Jeremy Allaire’s dog. The post attracted roughly 1 million views and prompted accusations from some traders that Circle was encouraging speculative activity around its new network.

 

Robinhood CEO’s X Account Hacked to Promote Fake Token Amid Memecoin Frenzy

 

The early numbers highlight a familiar problem for institutional blockchain projects: building infrastructure for banks and asset managers does not necessarily determine who uses it first. Arc was designed around stablecoins, tokenized assets, payments and institutional settlement.

Its first major wave of users instead arrived looking for the next speculative token trade.

 

 

CASE STUDY | This Protocol Activity Provides Strong Indication of Where the Market Sees the Opportunity

 

 

 

 

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