Arc aims to change that.

Arc is a purpose-built, EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed for stablecoin-native financial applications. Developed by Circle, the company behind USDC, Arc is built around predictable transaction costs, fast settlement, and programmable digital money.

And now, Arc is integrated into NTM.ai, expanding NTM.ai’s multichain ecosystem with support for a network designed specifically around stablecoin finance.

What Is Arc?

Arc is an open Layer 1 blockchain developed by Circle and designed from the ground up for stablecoin-powered financial applications.

Unlike many blockchains where users need a volatile native cryptocurrency to pay transaction fees, Arc uses USDC as its native gas token.

That means users can pay transaction fees directly in USDC rather than acquiring a separate network token. Arc’s fee system is also designed to make transaction costs more stable and predictable in dollar terms.

Arc is designed to support use cases including:

Global payments and settlement
Foreign exchange
Lending and credit markets
Capital markets
Tokenized real-world assets
Treasury management
Agentic commerce

In other words, Arc is not simply another general-purpose blockchain. Its architecture is specifically optimized around stablecoins and programmable finance.

USDC as Native Gas

One of Arc’s most distinctive features is its gas model.

On Ethereum, users need ETH to pay transaction fees. Other networks similarly require their own native assets.

Arc takes a different approach:

USDC is the native gas token.

Users can therefore hold USDC and use that same asset for both transfers and transaction fees without needing a separate volatile gas token.

This design can make transaction costs easier to understand.

Instead of asking:

“How much is the network token worth right now?”

users and applications can operate with fees denominated in a dollar-based asset.

For payment applications, businesses, exchanges, fintech platforms and other financial applications, predictable transaction costs can be particularly important.

Sub-Second Deterministic Finality

Speed is another major component of Arc’s architecture.

Arc uses a Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus system based on Malachite and is designed to provide deterministic finality in under one second.

Deterministic finality means that once a transaction has been included in a finalized block, it is considered irreversible.

There is no need to wait for a long sequence of additional blocks to gain greater confidence that the transaction will not be reorganized.

For applications involving payments, trading infrastructure and financial settlement, this enables transactions to move from submitted to final extremely quickly.

Arc Is EVM-Compatible

Despite introducing a different economic model, Arc maintains compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Arc is fully EVM-compatible, allowing developers to use Solidity smart contracts and familiar Ethereum development infrastructure.

Tools such as:

Foundry, Hardhat, viem and ethers

can continue to be used when building on Arc.

This is important because developers do not necessarily need to learn an entirely new programming environment to build Arc applications.

Existing EVM applications can also potentially deploy Arc versions while retaining much of their existing architecture, although developers must account for Arc-specific behavior such as USDC being the native gas asset.

Arc Is Built Around Stablecoins

Stablecoins are not an additional feature layered on top of Arc.

They are central to the network's architecture.

Arc's stablecoin-native model currently centers on USDC, while its architecture also supports Circle-related assets including EURC and USYC for different financial use cases.

This allows Arc to target a broader financial infrastructure layer where different forms of digital money and tokenized assets can interact.

Circle describes Arc as infrastructure intended for areas such as payments, FX and capital markets rather than simply a blockchain for transferring USDC.

Stable and Predictable Transaction Fees

Using USDC for gas solves one part of the transaction-cost problem.

Arc goes further by implementing a fee mechanism designed specifically to reduce short-term fee volatility.

The network uses an EIP-1559-based fee market combined with an exponentially weighted moving average mechanism that smooths changes in the base fee according to recent network utilization.

The objective is straightforward:

More predictable blockchain transaction costs.

That can be particularly valuable for businesses processing large numbers of transactions, where unpredictable gas expenses can complicate financial planning.

What Can Be Built on Arc?

Because Arc combines EVM compatibility with stablecoin-native infrastructure, it can support a wide range of financial applications.

For example, developers can build applications involving global payments, cross-border payouts, onchain FX, tokenized assets, lending, settlement infrastructure and treasury operations. Arc also identifies agentic commerce—transactions involving autonomous software or AI agents—as one of its target use cases.

This positions Arc at the intersection of several rapidly developing areas:

Stablecoins + Tokenization + DeFi + Payments + AI Agents

Rather than treating stablecoins as assets running on top of a general-purpose network, Arc attempts to make stablecoin finance part of the network's fundamental architecture.

Arc × NTM.ai

With Arc now integrated into NTM.ai, the Arc ecosystem becomes part of NTM.ai’s expanding multichain infrastructure.

For NTM.ai, the integration is particularly relevant to its core mission:

making token discovery and onchain market information accessible across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

As new assets, applications and communities emerge on Arc, NTM.ai can provide users with another network through which to discover and explore the onchain ecosystem.

The integration therefore expands NTM.ai's multichain coverage while giving Arc projects additional visibility within the NTM.ai ecosystem.

Arc is now integrated into NTM.ai.

Why Arc Matters for the Future of Onchain Finance

Most early blockchains were built around crypto-native assets.

Arc takes a different approach.

Its architecture starts with the assumption that stablecoins and tokenized assets can become important infrastructure for internet-native financial activity.

That leads to several fundamental design choices:

USDC for gas.

Dollar-denominated transaction costs.

Sub-second deterministic finality.

EVM compatibility.

Stablecoin-native infrastructure.

Together, these features make Arc fundamentally different from networks whose economic systems depend primarily on a volatile native token.

The broader ambition is to create blockchain infrastructure capable of supporting financial activity ranging from everyday payments to global capital markets.

Arc and Institutional Adoption

Arc is also being developed with institutional financial infrastructure in mind.

Ahead of its public mainnet launch, Circle announced a founding validator cohort that included organizations such as BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Visa.

This institutional participation reflects Arc's focus on financial-market infrastructure rather than exclusively crypto-native applications.

Importantly, Arc combines this model with permissionless developer access: its documentation describes validator participation as permissioned while developers can build and deploy applications on the network without requiring permission.

Final Thoughts

Arc represents a different approach to Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure.

Instead of building a blockchain first and adding stablecoins later, Arc is designed around stablecoins from the beginning.

With USDC as native gas, predictable dollar-denominated fees, sub-second deterministic finality and full EVM compatibility, Arc provides infrastructure designed specifically for programmable finance.

For NTM.ai, integrating Arc means expanding into another emerging blockchain ecosystem while continuing to build a broader multichain discovery infrastructure.

For users, it means one more ecosystem becomes discoverable through NTM.ai

For projects building on Arc, it creates another path toward visibility and discovery.

Arc is now integrated into NTM.ai

One more chain. One bigger ecosystem.

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What Is Arc?