Speaking with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on the sidelines of the 2025 edition of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jeremy Allaire of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) described Arc as “an economical operating system for the Internet,” arguing that core financial workflows are moving in chains and need predictable costs and performance.
He said Arc is designed for payments, foreign exchange, lending and capital markets activities, with dollar-denominated fees, sub-second settlements and privacy controls intended to allow businesses to protect sensitive balances or flows when necessary. The public testnet went live on October 28, and the mainnet is planned for 2026 after builders test smart contracts, transaction flows, and token launches.
Read more: USDC issuer Circle begins testing Arc Blockchain with large institutions on board
Allaire highlighted USDC as the practical bridge for those use cases. He rejected the idea that growth is stable, saying usage has expanded through 2025 and demand from emerging markets is “very significant,” led by companies that want to settle in dollars without the frictions of legacy cross-border banking. He highlighted the Middle East, where companies use digital dollars to quickly move value between trading partners.
That approach aligns with Circle’s plans in the United Arab Emirates. Allaire made reference to the regulatory measures that position the company to operate in the region and support institutions that want chain dollar pathways. He also linked the push to policy clarity, saying recent US legislation for payment stablecoins has helped larger companies integrate stablecoin payments, currencies and credit workflows.
As for the breadth of the ecosystem, Allaire said Arc’s announcement involved more than 100 banking, payments, big tech and artificial intelligence companies. He framed Arc’s business model as transactional and ecosystem-driven, with a long-term goal of widely distributed operations and governance rather than a single-company walled garden.
The framework is simple: Arc provides a high-yield, dollar-priced environment for native stablecoin finance, while USDC serves as the settlement and fee unit around which developers can plan. Allaire’s message to businesses was that predictable costs, rapid finality, and compliance-friendly privacy can move more of the “financial guts” of trading onto programmable rails.
