Circle’s CRCL$82.66·Market Closed Arc blockchain went live on Wednesday with 11 founding validators, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, and DTCC. CEO Jeremy Allaire described it as the most significant launch in the company’s history since $USDC itself.
Within the first 24 hours, the chain processed 7.83 million transactions, but the majority were not related to payments. Lifetime $USDC transfers totaled around 624,000, as reported by Arc’s Blockscout explorer. Additionally, over 400,000 new accounts were created, and more than 73,000 contracts were deployed. Average fees also increased significantly to three cents.
The blocks on the chain were being filled with memecoins, leading some traders to dismiss the chain’s potential.
“Arc is only a day old, and every coin has already dropped by 50-80%,” trader wale.moca commented on X. When asked about the possibility of a recovery, he responded, “It’s cooked.” Another user referred to it as a “one-day arc.”
Memecoin prices on Arc reflected the negative sentiment, with TOLLY down by 56%, LONG by 77%, and COOL by 75% from their launch highs.
