Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Asher (@Asher_0210)

Last night, stablecoin issuer Circle officially announced its Q1 2026 financial report (for more details: Analyzing Circle's Q1 Financial Report: After the Tide of Interest Benefits, USDC Prepares for the Next Big Move). Compared to traditional financial indicators like revenue, profit, and USDC circulation, what has caught more attention in the crypto community, particularly from those looking to gain benefits, is that Circle disclosed in its financial report that its payment network Arc has completed a $222 million ARC token presale, with a valuation reaching $3 billion. The investor lineup includes well-known institutions such as a16z, BlackRock, Intercontinental Exchange, Standard Chartered, and SBI. It is rare to see so many traditional financial institutions concentrated on investing in a public chain in the crypto industry.

Additionally, Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated during the earnings call this evening, when asked, “Will there be a broader distribution of ARC tokens in the future?,” that “Our current core focus is to drive the launch of the Arc mainnet (coming soon) and to drive the utility and growth of the network. What we shared in the ARC token white paper is that 60% of the tokens are specifically allocated for ecosystem funding, airdrops, and other incentive programs, which is what Circle and the broader community hope to see over time. Clearly, there will be more opportunities in the future regarding the deployment of ARC tokens — especially for this 60% of tokens.”

Next, Odaily Planet Daily will quickly inform everyone about Arc, interpret the white paper of the public chain Arc released by Circle last night, and highlight opportunities for early participation in the interactive airdrop of the tokens.

Circle Launches a Layer 1 Specifically for Stablecoins

Arc is a new generation EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain launched by "Stablecoin First Stock" Circle, designed to build an economic operating system for the internet, deeply integrating programmable stablecoins with on-chain financial innovations. Arc is specifically designed for financial applications, focusing on serving global payment, foreign exchange, lending, and capital market scenarios, aiming to provide a secure, low-cost, compliant, and scalable underlying settlement layer for programmable currencies on the internet.

Arc aims to solve three major pain points faced by existing public chains in enterprise and institutional-level financial applications: insufficient high-frequency trading performance, lack of privacy and compliance support, and excessive volatility in transaction fees. By optimizing architecture and creating a stable fee model, Arc will achieve an efficient, finance-grade trading experience and promote the evolution of stablecoins from "digital dollars" to the core infrastructure of global payments, lending, foreign exchange, and capital markets.

Key Points Overview of the Arc White Paper

The ARC token is the network's native coordinating asset (utility-driven token), used to align the long-term interests of participants, and not a share of Circle equity or profit sharing. Its specific functions are as follows:

• Economic Alignment: Staking + Delegating, providing network security, earning fees/inflation rewards;
• Governance: Holders participate in decisions regarding economic parameters (such as fees, inflation, destruction);
• Fee Capture: The protocol layer converts fees into ARC (partly destroyed, rewarding validators and stakers), with network activity directly driving demand and deflation;
• Platform Utility: Holding/staking ARC may earn Gas discounts, priority access to services, ecosystem benefits, etc.;
• Expansion of Utility Surface: Future support for multi-chain coordination, multi-asset Gas, dedicated trading channels, etc.

Additionally, the initial supply of ARC is 10 billion tokens, with specific allocation details as follows:

• Ecological System: 60% of total supply, covering token sales, developer funding, network growth plans, and broader participation mechanisms;
• Circle Team: 25% of total supply, ensuring that Circle maintains a clear economic interest aligned with the long-term success of the network, while also allowing Circle to participate directly in staking and governance, and manage ecosystem-related plans;
• Long-term Reserve: 15% of total supply, providing a buffer resource for the network to respond to unknown situations, which can be used during market imbalances, fund critical infrastructure, or support the stable operation of the network during periods of stress.

Arc Token Economic Model

Step-by-Step Participation in the Arc Early Interactive

Currently, Arc has not announced the token issuance time and remains in the early stages. Here are several angles from which you can participate in the interaction:

First, test tokens can be claimed at the Circle Faucet (link: https://faucet.circle.com/).

First, for developers, you can directly access Arc Docs (link: https://docs.arc.network/), including connecting Arc Testnet RPC, deploying contracts, testing USDC gas, sending stablecoins, bridging in and out, and App Kit, among other opportunities listed by the official.

Second, for project teams, you can apply for Circle Developer Grants (link: https://www.circle.com/grant), focusing on supporting AI Agent payments, stablecoin FX, P2P payments, treasury management, prediction markets, lending, and more.

Third, for most ordinary users, you can participate in community activities launched earlier by Arc. The social activities have five levels with corresponding requirements, which are:

• Architects Level 1: over 500 points;
• Architects Level 2: over 3500 points;
• Architects Level 3: over 15000 points;
• Architects Level 4: over 40000 points;
• Architects Level 5: over 90000 points.

Participating in this community activity at zero cost and achieving a higher level may provide more shares in future new projects. Enter the interaction website (link: https://community.arc.network/), register using a Google email (some users have reported difficulties logging into accounts that participated in community activities through Google previously) or a LinkedIn account, and complete verification to log in.

Ways to earn points include:

• Daily activity: can earn 5 points;
• Posting: can earn 10 points (once only);
• Comments/replies: can earn 5 points (twice);
• Accepting answers: can earn 30 points (once only);
• Reading content: can earn 5 points (up to 5 times);
• Watching videos: can earn 5 points (once only).

More advanced tasks include:

• Publishing articles can earn 200 points;
• Becoming a video speaker can earn 500 points;
• Becoming a guest speaker for events can earn 500 points;
• Hosting Arc Core Meetups can earn 1500 points.

Finally, join the official Discord to complete the review before entering, and look for early identity roles (link: https://discord.com/invite/buildonarc).

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