Circle Opens Arc Mainnet As Meme Coin Traders Eye Launch

Circle opened Arc public mainnet on Wednesday with 11 founding validators from traditional finance, while traders are already positioning for a meme coin rush at launch. According to BeInCrypto, the Layer 1 network is built for payments and settlement, uses USDC for gas, and is designed around payments, foreign exchange and tokenized securities. Circle raised $222 million in an Arc token presale at a $3 billion valuation. The validator set includes BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, Galaxy, SBI Group and Standard Chartered, as speculators map launchpads and pre-mainnet tokens.