Chainstack extends Arc Mainnet support: Stablecoin Layer 1 built by Circle

Arc, Circle's USDC-native Layer 1 for institutional stablecoin finance, is now available through Chainstack Global Nodes, Dedicated Nodes, and Chainstack Self-Hosted, as the network opened to the public with eleven founding validators including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard.

Singapore, September 17, 2026 — Chainstack, a Web3 infrastructure platform serving 100K+ developers across 70+ blockchain networks, has extended its Arc support to mainnet across three deployment models: Global Nodes, Dedicated Nodes, and Chainstack Self-Hosted. Chainstack has supported Arc testnet since July 2026 and endpoints are now live for both mainnet and testnet.

What Arc is

Arc is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 built by Circle, the issuer of USDC, purpose-designed for stablecoin-native finance: payments, FX, treasury operations, tokenized assets, and capital-markets settlement. It pairs Reth, which runs transactions, with Malachite, a consensus system that finalizes blocks in about half a second. Once enough validators agree on a block, it's final and doesn't get reorganized or reversed later.

USDC is Arc's native gas token, so transaction costs are dollar-denominated rather than tied to a volatile asset, a detail that matters for institutions budgeting payment rails rather than speculating on a native token.

Arc's mainnet launched with eleven founding validators — BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa — alongside Circle.

Three deployment paths, one control plane

How the three deployment models compare:

Global Nodes

• Infrastructure: Elastic, load-balanced
• Requests: Metered in request units
• Control: Standard
• Data residency: Chainstack-operated regions
• Best for: Wallets, fintech apps, payment integrations

Dedicated Nodes

• Infrastructure: Isolated node instance
• Requests: Unlimited
• Control: Full node configuration
• Data residency: Chainstack-operated regions
• Best for: Trading desks, FX and treasury systems, high-throughput RWA workloads

Chainstack Self-Hosted

• Infrastructure: Customer's own cloud, on-premises, or bare metal
• Requests: Unlimited
• Control: Full stack
• Data residency: Customer-controlled
• Best for: Regulated institutions, sovereignty requirements

Global Nodes are auto-scaling, load-balanced RPC endpoints; Dedicated Nodes are isolated high-performance instances with unlimited requests. Chainstack Self-Hosted is a system for running Arc's Reth and Malachite infrastructure inside the customer's own environment, with Chainstack handling deployment, monitoring, updates, and recovery. New nodes start from a snapshot, so they come online fast instead of re-downloading the entire chain history.

Why the third path matters

Stablecoin-finance infrastructure splits three ways. A trading desk needs latency guarantees and unlimited request throughput. A fintech integrating USDC payments needs cost-predictable access without managing infrastructure. A bank, payment network, or regulated institution frequently cannot place customer-linked transaction data on third-party infrastructure at all, regardless of the provider's certifications.

"Arc's founding validator lineup puts major financial institutions inside the network itself, not just on top of it. But a shared network shouldn't mean a single operating model," said Eugene Aseev, CTO and co-founder of Chainstack.

"Banks, trading firms and payments startups have different requirements for how and where their nodes run. We give them that choice, hosted by us or inside their own environment, without requiring any of them to become an infrastructure company."

Availability

Arc joins Chainstack's 70+ supported networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, and Robinhood Chain: one platform, one billing relationship, and one observability layer for cross-chain stablecoin and RWA flows. Chainstack also operates a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets developers query on-chain data and deploy nodes from Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, ChatGPT, Codex, and Gemini.

Endpoints are live now. Create a Chainstack account, deploy a node on Arc mainnet or testnet, and start building. Testnet USDC and EURC are available through Circle's faucet, and free-tier access is available for teams evaluating the network.

About Chainstack

Chainstack is a Web3 infrastructure platform serving 100K+ developers across 70+ blockchain networks, holding SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications. Chainstack provides low-latency RPC access, dedicated node deployments, and self-hosted node infrastructure for teams building trading, DeFi, fintech, and RWA applications worldwide.