I am excited to host one of our first live investor AMAs -- open to all CRCL investors, developers, builders and the industry as a whole. I will be hosting in a special format/location (reveal next week), all broadcast live on X and YouTube. See below.
Hey @bobbilee tried to tell y’all what time it was!!!
Hott @arc summer is in full effect effective immediately.
Act accordingly 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😎
I appreciate your attention to this matter.
if it ain’t like this then it ain’t @arc discord office hours
trust the arc community to always turn up and support each other. seeing other builders present what they’ve built is amazing and I love it.
shoutout to @samconnerone came in to support the builders as usual 🤍
Build on arc
Circle Agent Stack gives developers a practical way to build agents that can hold funds, find services, and pay for access.
In this walkthrough, see how an agent can:
→ Create a USDC-funded wallet
→ Discover services in Agent Marketplace
→ Pay for API access through Circle Gateway
→ Execute actions using Circle CLI
Infrastructure for agent systems with defined permissions and guardrails.
https://t.co/D9Z96FjwE2
Overview
This investor AMA was held on-site at Circle’s annual Circle Forward event. Over a thousand in-house employees present are all company investors. Questions came from investors across South Korea, broader Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and other global regions. At the opening, Circle’s CEO outlined three core corporate strategies: scaling real-world adoption of USDC, developing the Arc-powered new technology platform, and expanding real-world payments based on underlying infrastructure. A legal disclaimer covering forward-looking statements was also read out.
Key Q&A Highlights
1. Arc’s Contribution to Circle’s Revenue & Competitive Moat
Positioned as an economic operating system, Arc enables asset tokenization and on-chain economic contracts to facilitate AI-agent-driven economic activities. Its native token pre-sale reached an FDV of USD 3 billion, with income streams from token sales, staking rewards, transaction fees and deep cross-platform integration. Built around an all-win ecosystem model, Arc helps Circle evolve into a comprehensive internet platform to attract AI developers, fintech developers and enterprises looking to migrate operations on-chain.
2. Slowdown in USDC circulation growth in 2026
Stablecoin expansion follows cyclical patterns. The recent slowdown mainly stems from capital rotation out of crypto assets into AI infrastructure and commodity investments. While circulation growth moderates, fundamentals remain robust: competing stablecoins have seen sharp supply declines; USDC institutional adoption and on-chain transaction volumes hit all-time highs, with mainstream platforms including Meta and CashApp rolling out USDC integrations. In the long run, USDC targets the enormous global market worth USD 120 trillion in M2 electronic money.
3. Rumors of Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and Coinbase jointly launching a new stablecoin platform
Media reports on the alleged partnership are unsubstantiated. Circle and Coinbase have a deep strategic partnership building USDC, while most stablecoin settlement volumes on Stripe and Visa run on USDC, marking long-standing cooperative ties. Historically, consortium-backed stablecoin projects have consistently underperformed. USDC boasts robust edges in regulation, liquidity and network effects with coverage across 185 countries. Among USD 22 trillion in total on-chain stablecoin transaction volume, USDC accounts for the dominant share, whereas alternative stablecoins record negligible transaction activity and mostly rely on subsidies to sustain losses. Circle adopts a co-opetition stance and supports third-party stablecoins on its own infrastructure.
4. Monetization of agentic payments from conceptual idea to tangible business driver
Advancements in AI and Arc’s economic operating system create synergies. Circle has rolled out Agent Wallet, X402 protocol and Agent Stack development suite. To unlock commercial value, robust infrastructure is required to support agent fund custody, cross-contract settlement and identity verification alongside dedicated agent marketplace discovery tools. Agent-as-a-Service (AaaS) will emerge as a core business model, with agent-mediated transaction volume eventually outpacing that of traditional click-based applications.
5. Share of traditional financial institution flows within Q1’s USD 22 trillion on-chain transaction volume
Precise breakdown data is unavailable. Card issuers such as Visa report record-high stablecoin-linked payment volumes, while service providers including Bridge and BVNK facilitate tens of billions of US dollars in stablecoin transfers. Transaction capital originates from three sources: daily cross-border settlements in emerging markets, native crypto trading flows, and capital movement around tokenized equities, commodities and other traditional financial instruments.
6. Share price decline and South Korean investors’ concerns over competition and revenue model
Short-term stock volatility is driven by market sentiment and capital shifting away from crypto toward the AI sector, dragging down valuations across the broader fintech peer group. Circle posted solid financial results with meaningful progress on Arc development, agentic business rollout and institutional onboarding. The CEO advised investors to focus on long-term fundamentals rather than short-term market swings.
7. Drivers behind USDC’s rising transaction market share & moat reinforcement
USDC’s uptake is fueled by compliant regulatory standing, deep global liquidity, institutional trust, CCTP cross-chain interoperability and powerful network effects. Its wide adoption across brokerage, DeFi, cross-border remittance and merchant settlement continuously strengthens its competitive advantages.
8. Core barriers preventing widespread USD digital money access for one billion end users
Three critical hurdles need resolving: first, mature fourth-generation blockchain infrastructure via Arc to deliver millisecond settlement and near-zero transaction costs with developers covering gas fees; second, seamless cross-chain asset interoperability to abstract blockchain complexity away from end users; third, global regulatory recognition of stablecoins as legal electronic money. Roughly 700 million digital wallets currently support USDC, with user coverage projected to expand to billions over time.
9. Arc’s expansion into a universal settlement layer for AI agents & machine-to-machine payments
AI and machine-driven payments constitute Arc’s flagship use case, supported by native agent wallets and developer CLI tools. The developer community is highly active, with most ongoing projects built around AI-Arc combinations, and substantial ecosystem growth expected after mainnet launch.
10. Circle’s long-term moat amid rising bank-issued stablecoins
Circle operates as a full-stack internet financial platform beyond standalone stablecoin issuance, with regulated USD/EUR stablecoins, wrapped Bitcoin on-chain products and tokenized money market funds under its portfolio. It licenses complete compliant on-chain tech stacks to banks and fintech firms, enabling partners to issue custom stablecoins and tokenized assets directly on Arc while Circle functions as an underlying infrastructure provider.
11. USDT’s larger market cap vs USDC’s superior transaction volume: 2026 USDC market expansion strategy
USDT built its initial footprint via offshore Asian crypto exchanges; as global exchanges ramp up regulatory compliance, USDC’s proportion in spot trading and collateral reserves keeps climbing.
Penetrate emerging markets across 185 countries, leveraging strict US regulatory oversight and full redeemable reserves to capture household wealth storage and cross-border payment demand.
Tap the vast traditional finance market spanning corporate treasury and commercial payments, where compliant USDC is the preferred stablecoin for mainstream enterprise integration.
12. Development opportunities for Arc ecosystem builders
Arc’s developer community totals tens of thousands of participants including over 2,000 core solution architects. Multiple mainstream applications will go live on mainnet upon launch. Pre-built AppKits and proprietary Circle AI development tools lower development barriers; developers stand to gain by focusing on AI-agent development and asset issuance while accessing cross-chain liquidity via CCTP.
13. Long-term value of USDC as programmable money beyond reserve-yield revenue
USDC acts as a permissionless, free public settlement rail on the internet, enabling tens of thousands of businesses to build integrations independently without formal corporate agreements. Beyond reserve interest income, Circle diversifies revenue via Arc services, payment solutions and diversified digital asset launches, with programmable capabilities paired with AI unlocking entirely new monetary use cases.
Closing Remarks
The CEO thanked global participating investors and all Circle employees, adding that regular investor AMA sessions will continue going forward.
Just posted about @Circle's Post-Quantum Security Roadmap explores how @Arc is approaching post-quantum resilience in phases, including:
Quantum-secure signature support in beta at mainnet launch
Quantum-secure private EVM state shortly after mainnet launch
https://t.co/rT4Brv6Jjs
🇻🇳 Cuối cùng Vietnam Regional Chapter trên Arc House đã chính thức ra mắt!
Rất vui được chia sẻ rằng mình đã trở thành Local Leader của Arc tại Việt Nam 🇻🇳
Đây là một hành trình rất đáng nhớ và mình biết ơn vì những cơ hội được đóng góp cho cộng đồng.
Với vai trò Local Leader, mình sẽ tiếp tục tập trung vào những điều mình yêu thích nhất: hỗ trợ các thành viên trong cộng đồng, chào đón những người mới, tôn vinh các builder Việt Nam và giúp nhiều người hơn khám phá những cơ hội trong hệ sinh thái Arc.
Anh em 🇻🇳 Việt Nam hãy tham gia Vietnam Regional Chapter để cùng học hỏi, kết nối và chia sẻ kinh nghiệm build trên Arc:
👉 https://t.co/q8GOySWImY
Ngoài ra, đừng quên chúng ta vẫn có @Arcvnbuilders – nơi mọi người có thể trao đổi, thảo luận và hỗ trợ lẫn nhau mỗi ngày.
🫡 Xin cảm ơn team @arc@bobbilee@samconnerone@silencexlm and @samconnerone đã tin tưởng và tạo điều kiện để điều này trở thành hiện thực.
Mình rất háo hức với chặng đường phía trước và mong được đồng hành cùng các Local Leaders hiện tại cũng như những người sẽ tham gia trong tương lai 🫡
Nếu bạn đang build, sáng tạo, nghiên cứu hoặc đơn giản là muốn tìm hiểu về Arc đừng ngần ngại hãy hỏi mình hay bất kì ai khác.
Cùng nhau phát triển cộng đồng Arc Việt Nam ngày một lớn mạnh hơn 🇻🇳🫡
Huge thanks to @cryptoworlldz because I didn’t see this on my timeline!!
ArcSubz is building a library of our Arc House videos that can be translated multiple languages:
• Chinese
• Hindi
• Vietnamese
• Indonesian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Arabic
• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese
• Turkish