Circle taps Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock as validators for Arc

Circle, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has named 11 founding companies as validators for its Arc blockchain — a network where transactions settle in USDC — ahead of the public mainnet launch on September 16, 2026.

The validator lineup includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa. The network currently runs a private mainnet with 100+ builders, and its testnet has already processed more than 500 million transactions across 3 million wallets. DeFi protocols Aave, Morpho, and Uniswap will deploy on Arc from day one, alongside wallet providers Binance Wallet, Kraken, Ledger, and MetaMask. BlackRock plans to deploy its tokenized money market fund BUIDL on the network, while DTCC will handle asset tokenization, targeting the second half of 2027. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called the validator lineup "a cohort of network validators no other network can match."

• Arc's public mainnet launch is set for September 16, 2026
• The testnet has already processed 500+ million transactions across 3 million wallets
• 11 founding validators, including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, DTCC, and ICE

Arc's launch fits a broader trend of major financial players building out stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure: just today we covered how Visa expanded stablecoin capabilities on Visa Direct through a partnership with Zerohash, and days earlier, how BlackRock brought $311 billion in European money market funds onchain. The fact that both Visa and BlackRock are now also validators on Circle's own network shows the line between traditional financial institutions and blockchain infrastructure keeps blurring faster than it might appear.

None of this should be read as personalized investment advice.