Gordon Liao

Chief Economist & Head of Research @circle

all view are mine only

[Jeremy Allaire @jerallaire]

$3.5B in USDC tx volume on day 1

[Token Relations @TokenRelations]

NEW: @Circle launches @Arc mainnet, an L1 blockchain purpose built for stablecoins, RWAs, and agentic payments.

Circle's Chief Economist and Head of Research, @GordonLiao, on what Arc is designed to be:

"It is a general purpose platform and operating system that will support economic coordination between humans and machines."

[Arc @arc]

Arc Mainnet is live.

Arc launches as the Economic OS for the internet: an open platform for global markets, real-time value movement, tokenized assets, and agentic economic activity.

Arc is more than a blockchain.

It launches as a full-stack financial platform with assets, applications, interoperability, developer infrastructure, and Circle platform services live from day one.

Arc delivers USDC as native gas, deterministic sub-second finality, EVM compatibility, and institutional validators.

It integrates with Arc Studio, App Kits, Arc Portal, Circle Agent Stack, CCTP, Gateway, CPN, and StableFX.

A complete economic platform at genesis.

Arc launches with infrastructure for:

→ Agentic economic workflows
→ Lending and borrowing
→ Trading and liquidity
→ Onchain FX
→ Payments and settlement
→ Tokenized assets
→ Exchanges, wallets, custody, compliance, data, and developer tooling

190+ institutional and ecosystem builders are building across Arc.

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

@MuyaoShen ur missing nothing

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

@PunkXBT_ There’s nothing better though. Unless you get sovereigns to adopt btc

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

The dollar's share of FX reserves is at a two-decade low. Treasury convenience yields have turned negative.

End of dollar dominance? No — but financial innovation could reshape the system.

Our new Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium paper, w/ @EswarSPrasad & Tony Zhang 🧵

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

Great conversation with @alextapscott and my old friend @nkennethk on everything from tokenization, emerging market leapfrog, and the upcoming Arc launch. Check it out

[Alex Tapscott @alextapscott]

New @defidecodedpod is out!

Could @circle and @Uniswap dominate the next era of finance?

Great discussion with two big brains on how the digitization of financial markets will upend the status quo.

Thanks to @gordonliao and @nkennethk for stopping by.

Check it out 👇

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

@antonttc @barnabemonnot @ethlabs_org @eth_systems Think bigger. 13-14 figures. What would secure trillions or tens of trillions? proof of stake in the 9 figures won't cut it. One needs strong governance, necks to choke, literally. It's not defi maxi, and that's by design

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

@helene_rey @BIS_org Congrats @helene_rey and @BIS_org

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

@NoahP7777777 @jerallaire Yep. We discuss that scenario in the paper

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

Paper + slides: https://t.co/gbqRNjkvFX
https://t.co/tS86KRIUCo

Presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, Aug 27–29, 2026. Grateful to the organizers and discussants — and to my co-authors @EswarSPrasad and Tony Zhang.

[Gordon Liao @gordonliao]

Three futures for the international monetary system:

1. Greater concentration — most likely on today's path
2. True multipolarity — best, but needs deep markets, strong institutions, innovations
3. Fragmentation — the riskiest

The outcome isn't preordained. Policy decides.