Speaking with CNBC's Sara Eisen on the sidelines of the 2025 Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jeremy Allaire of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) described Arc as the “economic operating system of the Internet” and argued that core financial workflows are chained and require predictable costs and performance.
He said Arc is built for payments, foreign exchange, lending, and capital markets activities, with dollar-denominated fees, sub-second settlements, and privacy controls to allow businesses to protect sensitive balances and flows if needed. The public testnet went live on October 28th, with the mainnet targeted for 2026 after builders trial smart contracts, transaction flows, and token launches.
Read more: USDC publisher Circle begins testing Arc blockchain with leading institutions on board
Allaire emphasized that USDC is a practical bridge for those use cases. He rejected the idea that growth was flat, saying usage was expanding through 2025 and that demand from emerging markets was “huge,” led by businesses wanting to settle in dollars without the friction of traditional cross-border banking. He singled out the Middle East, where companies are using digital dollars to quickly move value between trading partners.
This focus aligns with Circle's UAE plans. Allaire mentioned the regulatory measures the company is taking to support institutions operating in the region and seeking on-chain dollar rail. He also linked momentum to policy clarity, saying recent US legislation on payments stablecoins is helping large companies integrate stablecoin payments, FX and credit workflows.
Regarding the breadth of the ecosystem, Allaire said the Arc announcement involves well over 100 companies in areas such as banking, payments, large-scale technology, and AI. He structured Arc's business model as transactional and ecosystem-driven, with a long-term goal of widely distributed operations and governance rather than the walled garden of a single company.
The framework is simple. Arc provides a dollar-priced, high-throughput environment for stablecoin-native financing, and USDC serves as the payment and fee unit that developers can plan on. Allaire's message to businesses was that with predictable costs, rapid finality, and compliant privacy, much of the “financial guts” of commerce can be moved to programmable rails.
