Karla Barker 
Arc as an Economic Operating System
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire recently described the company’s new Arc blockchain as “an economic OS for the internet” during an interview at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh. He made the case that core financial workflows are increasingly moving on-chain, and these systems need predictable costs and reliable performance to function properly in business environments.
Allaire explained that Arc is specifically designed for payments, foreign exchange operations, lending activities, and capital markets work. The platform features dollar-denominated fees, sub-second settlement times, and privacy controls that let enterprises shield sensitive financial information when necessary. I think this approach makes sense for institutions that need both transparency and confidentiality in different parts of their operations.
USDC’s Central Role
The Circle CEO emphasized USDC’s practical function as the bridge for these financial use cases. He pushed back against suggestions that stablecoin growth has flattened, noting that usage has actually expanded through 2025. Allaire pointed to “very significant” demand from emerging markets, particularly from companies that want to settle transactions in dollars without dealing with the friction of traditional cross-border banking systems.
He specifically highlighted the Middle East, where businesses are using digital dollars to move value quickly between trading partners. This regional focus aligns with Circle’s plans in the UAE, where regulatory developments position the company to support institutions wanting on-chain dollar payment rails.
Regulatory Clarity Driving Adoption
Allaire connected the growing momentum to recent policy clarity, particularly U.S. legislation around payment stablecoins. He suggested this regulatory framework has helped larger companies feel more comfortable integrating stablecoin payments, foreign exchange operations, and credit workflows into their systems. Perhaps this regulatory progress explains why over 100 companies across banking, payments, large technology firms, and AI companies participated in the Arc announcement.
Business Model and Long-term Vision
The Arc business model is transactional and ecosystem-driven rather than following a walled garden approach. Allaire described the long-term goal as creating broadly distributed operations and governance structures. The basic framework seems straightforward: Arc provides a dollar-priced, high-throughput environment for stablecoin-native finance, while USDC serves as the settlement and fee unit that developers can build around with confidence.
Allaire’s message to enterprises was that predictable costs, fast transaction finality, and compliance-friendly privacy features could encourage more companies to move what he called the “financial guts” of commerce to programmable blockchain rails. The public testnet launched on October 28, with mainnet deployment targeted for 2026 after builders have time to test smart contracts, transaction flows, and token launches.