Meme and DeFi Compete for First-Day Traffic

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

Within two months of its launch, Robinhood Chain pushed its daily DEX transaction volume to $989 million, raising market expectations for the next institutional public chain.

On September 16, Circle's open blockchain network Arc, aimed at the global financial market, will go live on the public mainnet. This Layer 1 blockchain primarily focuses on stablecoin finance, initially using USDC to pay for gas, with transactions receiving final confirmation in under a second, maintained by a group of permissioned validators.

Where will the first wave of traffic go? Meme projects have already started trading, vying for the token issuance entry point. Everything is set, just waiting for the wind to rise.

The 11 founding validators announced by Circle on August 5 include BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa. Arc is currently in the private mainnet phase, with over 100 institutions and ecological teams involved in its development.

BlackRock is expected to deploy its dollar institutional digital liquidity fund BUIDL to Arc, allowing institutional investors to complete fund subscriptions, redemptions, and fund deployments within the native USDC environment. Circle and DTCC plan to advance the tokenization of assets held by the U.S. Depository Trust Company DTC starting in the second half of 2027, aiming to enable market participants to settle tokenized assets with stablecoins through third-party applications on Arc. BNY and Standard Chartered are also exploring integrated solutions for digital asset custody, foreign exchange, and repurchase infrastructure.

The Arc public testnet is expected to process over 150 million transactions in its first 90 days, with approximately 1.5 million wallets having initiated transactions. With the private mainnet launching in May, the network with chain ID 5042 has begun to see community RPCs, browsers, trading platforms, and tokens emerge.

These tokens have already generated quotes and liquidity, but the network is still defined by Circle as a private mainnet. Access to the public network will open on September 16, with official mainnet parameters for cross-chain tools yet to be released.

Fomo and edgeX Commit to First-Day Access, Aave V4 Still Awaiting Governance Progress

Fomo co-founder Se Yong Park stated on August 30 that Fomo will provide trading support on Arc's launch day. Fomo is an application that combines token discovery, social dynamics, and cross-chain trading within a single account; the project revealed in April that its mobile registration has reached 500,000. Fomo has yet to announce the first batch of tokens supported on Arc, trading paths, and sources of liquidity.

Fomo currently supports Solana, Robinhood Chain, BNB Chain, Base, Ethereum, and Monad, allowing users to view trades from other accounts, track profits and losses, and purchase tokens cross-chain within the app. After integrating Arc, this frontend will be able to direct existing users straight to the Arc asset page, although the ability to complete non-bridge transactions on the first day will still depend on the routing and funding sources subsequently announced by Fomo.

edgeX announced on September 3 that it would be a first-day partner with Arc, planning to launch a 24-hour trading USD/JPY perpetual contract initially and providing over 150 perpetual markets covering U.S. stocks, commodities, and crypto assets, with margin, settlement, and fees all using native USDC. Circle Ventures has invested in edgeX, and the two previously advanced native USDC and CCTP integration on the EDGE Chain.

Circle expects to integrate Aave, Aerodrome, FalconX, Galaxy, GSR, Keyrock, Morpho, Nonco, Uniswap, and XFX, as well as capital service providers like Rain, Thunes, and Wirex offering stablecoin payment services on the first day of the public mainnet. Binance Wallet, Chainlink, Fireblocks, Kraken, Ledger, MetaMask, Uniswap Labs, and Upbit will provide wallet, trading, and infrastructure support. Aave Labs submitted a governance proposal in June to deploy Aave V4 on Arc, aiming to open markets for USDC, EURC, WETH, and cirBTC around the mainnet launch. This deployment still needs to complete Aave governance procedures.

According to this list, Uniswap and Aerodrome will provide spot trading and liquidity pools, while Aave and Morpho will handle collateral lending. Institutions like FalconX, GSR, Keyrock, and Nonco will be responsible for market-making and capital allocation. The initial Gas, major trading pairs, and lending assets on Arc will revolve around USDC. Whether funds can simultaneously enter Meme pools, stablecoin pools, and lending markets on the first day will directly impact slippage and borrowing capacity across the markets.

Leading Meme Begins to Stratify, Tolly, Warp, and Arcpad Compete for Token Issuance Entry

On September 1, the Chinese community account ARC Chinese Research Station released a popular Meme roundup for Arc, with Architects, FatCatBatRatWifHat, COOL, and WARP all making the top five. Arcodex data shows that the market valuations for Architects, COOL, and FatCatBatRatWifHat are approximately $2.79 million, $2.31 million, and $1.16 million, with corresponding liquidity of about $90,800, $105,300, and $60,500, and 24-hour trader counts of 105, 193, and 73, respectively.

WARP and BEANCAT have market values of approximately $890,900 and $864,500, both with liquidity under $46,000.

Moreover, Arc takes on both Gas and transaction valuation assets using USDC, so users do not need to prepare another network token in advance when creating, buying, and selling tokens. Consequently, launchpads generally connect USDC directly to joint curves or liquidity pools, but project teams have proposed different solutions for price formation, LP ownership, and fee distribution.

Tolly is already running a launchpad and DEX on chain ID 5042, where all token supplies directly enter a permanently locked USDC liquidity pool without going through a joint curve. A 1% fee is charged for each transaction, with 64% of the USDC fees from purchases going to creators, 12% going to holder rewards, 10% going to the protocol, and the remainder used for buy-back and destruction of TOLLY and corresponding project tokens; fees from selling project tokens are entirely burned.

Warp uses a joint curve, and once the token market cap reaches $69,000, it migrates to WarpDex and burns LP. Its cross-chain purchase module plans to burn USDC from Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum through Circle CCTP, automatically completing purchases after minting on Arc. The Arc side contract has been deployed, but the source chain contract had not gone live as of September 3.

Arcpad provides another solution on the public testnet, with tokens immediately entering Uniswap V3 after creation, without waiting for graduation or migration. The platform charges a 1% transaction fee, with the default of half going to the protocol and the creator, while the creator can also distribute part of the income to holders. Arcpad disclosed that its contract has not undergone professional auditing. Tolly, Warp, and Arcpad are currently independent projects, and Circle has not endorsed their products or tokens.

RadarDEX takes on the market and issuance infrastructure for the current ecosystem, with its data adopted by frontends such as Arcodex, and the embedded launcher created and locked liquidity based on Uniswap V3. Sharc chooses a joint curve and LP destruction after graduation scheme and has stated that it has not issued platform tokens. Once multiple launchpads appear simultaneously, tokens with the same name and code may also be redeployed, with contract addresses becoming the only reliable identifier to distinguish assets.

Interestingly, Circle also plans to launch a suite of accompanying products on September 16, including a composable application framework for on-chain workflows, AI-driven applications and smart contract building tools, issuance management capabilities for tokenizing real-world assets, as well as interactive interfaces for developers, users, and AI agents.

After the public mainnet opens on September 16, verifiable mainnet data regarding official cross-chain fund inflows, DEX liquidity, lending deposits, and active addresses will begin to form, and the first-day products promised by Fomo and edgeX will also undergo real transaction verification on the same day.