Circle Expands Arc Blockchain with Ambitious 2026 Roadmap

Circle Internet Group has unveiled ambitious plans to expand its Arc blockchain, a Layer-1 protocol designed as an 'Economic Operating System' for global finance. The company aims to push Arc from testnet towards production and scale its Circle Payments Network and StableFX applications to capture enterprise market share in stablecoin-powered settlement.

The move comes as Circle faces increasing competition from Tether, which generated $5.2 billion in revenue during 2025 and now controls 60.1% of the $311 billion stablecoin market through USDT. Circle's USDC holds 24.2% market share at $72.4 billion circulation, trailing significantly despite 108% year-over-year growth.

Circle has integrated Arc with its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which now connects 19 blockchains and has processed $126 billion in cumulative volume as of December 2025. The company has also introduced Gateway, a chain-agnostic system that unifies USDC balances across networks, and launched Build, a suite of AI developer tools alongside App Kits, to accelerate application development.