BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Among 100+ Participants in Circle’s Arc Public Testnet Launch

Key Points

• Circle Internet Group has launched a public testnet for its open, layer-1 blockchain network, Arc.
• Over 100 organizations from various sectors are testing the new network, including Amazon Web Services, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs.

Circle Internet Group has rolled out a public testnet for its open, layer-1 blockchain network named Arc.

The press release on October 28 revealed that over 100 organizations spanning finance, business, and technology sectors have chosen to test the new network. Among the notable participants are tech firms such as Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, and Cloudflare, as well as financial services firms including BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Standard Chartered.

About Arc Network

Arc network, which was first announced on August 12, is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible, open blockchain that uses USDC as its native gas token. According to the press release, it was designed to support predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack platform.

Arc was also designed to provide complete functionality for stablecoins. Gas fees are paid in USDC or other stablecoin and Circle intends to deploy native infrastructure on Arc to support core stablecoin swaps and FX liquidity.

Circle’s Growth Cycle

The launch of Arc could mark the end of a notably productive month for Circle. The company began the month with analysts predicting massive growth. Paris-based finance firm Rothschild & Co Redburn started coverage of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) on October 3, giving it an initial “neutral” rating and a price target of $136. At the time of this article’s publication, CRCL is trading at $139, slightly above the initial target and down nearly 3% over 24 hours.

On October 28, Fintech banking firm Clearbank signed a strategic framework agreement with Circle to integrate the USDC and EURC stablecoins across Europe. This partnership is expected to enable faster cross-border remittances with lower fees. Both companies intend to use this partnership to explore treasury and tokenized asset settlement use cases.