by Coinstrooper Crypto Articles
Quick Take
  • Circle’s USDC holds 24.2% market share at $72.4 billion circulation, trailing significantly despite 108% year-over-year growth.
  • The network attracted over 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Société Générale, and Visa during its first 90 days.
  • The blockchain uses USDC as its native gas token and provides deterministic sub-second finality specifically designed for regulated financial operations.
  • Treasuries than Germany, South Korea, or Australia, cementing its role as a macroeconomic participant.

What Happened

Arc’s public testnet has processed more than 150 million transactions since launching in October 2025, with close to 1.5 million transacting wallets and average settlement times around 0.5 seconds, according to Circle’s latest product update.

Circle introduced Gateway, a chain-agnostic system that unifies USDC balances across networks, and launched Build, a suite of AI developer tools alongside App Kits, to accelerate application development.

Circle’s enterprise offensive unfolds as Tether expands beyond stablecoins into traditional finance, recently accumulating 140 tons of gold worth $23 billion and launching USAT, a federally regulated stablecoin under America’s new GENIUS Act framework.

Meanwhile, Circle’s Circle Payments Network has enrolled 29 financial institutions since launching in May 2025, with 55 undergoing eligibility reviews and 500 in the pipeline.

Visa also announced in December 2025 that it will allow U.S. financial institutions to settle transactions using USDC on Solana, offering “seven-day availability and improved resilience during weekends and holidays.“

“Financial institutions are preparing to use stablecoins as part of their treasury operations,” said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships.

Market Context

The company aims to push Arc from testnet toward production while scaling its Circle Payments Network and StableFX applications to capture enterprise market share in stablecoin-powered settlement.

The strategy comes as Circle faces mounting competition from Tether, which generated $5.2 billion in revenue during 2025 and now controls 60.1% of the $311 billion stablecoin market through USDT.

Circle’s USDC holds 24.2% market share at $72.4 billion circulation, trailing significantly despite 108% year-over-year growth.

The company has integrated Arc with its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, which now connects 19 blockchains and has processed $126 billion in cumulative volume as of December 2025.

Tether’s Dominance and Federal Push Pressure Circle’s Market Position

Tether emerged as the most profitable crypto entity in 2025, capturing 41.9% of all stablecoin-related revenue and maintaining its position as the third-largest digital asset globally at $186.8 billion market value.

The network operates across eight countries and reached $3.4 billion in annualized transaction volumes, partnering with Binance, Corpay, FIS, Fiserv, and OKX.

Why It Matters

Circle Internet Group has unveiled an aggressive 2026 roadmap centered on Arc, its Layer-1 blockchain designed to serve as an “Economic Operating System” for global finance.

Circle Chief Product & Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok said the company is working toward production readiness by “evolving the validator set toward greater distribution” and “standing up a governance model that aligns with institutional risk and compliance expectations.“

Major Financial Institutions Signal Blockchain Settlement Shift

Details

Arc Testnet Processes 150M Transactions

The network attracted over 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Société Générale, and Visa during its first 90 days.

The blockchain uses USDC as its native gas token and provides deterministic sub-second finality specifically designed for regulated financial operations.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg that the company is “soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let’s say, gold central banks in the world,” while buying more than a ton per week.

The company holds more U.S. Treasuries than Germany, South Korea, or Australia, cementing its role as a macroeconomic participant.

BlackRock is staffing up for its next crypto expansion phase, posting digital asset roles across New York, London, and Singapore with managing director positions offering up to $350,000 annually.

The asset manager accepted its tokenized BUIDL fund as collateral at Binance and identified Bitcoin exposure as a core portfolio building block for 2025.

Initial participants, Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, are already settling with Visa in USDC, with a broader U.S. rollout planned through 2026.