Circle's CRCL$83.15·Market Closed Arc blockchain went live Wednesday with BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard and DTCC among 11 founding validators, and CEO Jeremy Allaire calling it the most significant launch in the company's history since USDC itself. The chain processed 7.83 million transactions in its first 24 hours, but almost none of it was payments. Lifetime USDC transfers stand at about 624,000, according to Arc's Blockscout explorer. Some 400,000 new accounts appeared in a day, and more than 73,000 contracts were deployed. Average fees quadrupled, to three cents.