The post Circle debuts public testnet of its payment-focused Arc chain Details appeared com. Key Takeaways What’s next for Arc as it rolls out public testnet? If the test is successful, the payment-focused chain could soon hit the public mainnet for everyone. Why is Arc’s progress important? It signals incoming shifts across the stablecoin payment ecosystem, and whether Ethereum will hold its ground remains to be seen. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is close to launching its Arc chain A global payment-focused L1 powered by digital dollars. In a statement on 28 October, the firm said that it had begun public testing for the chain alongside key design partners. The partners include top banks, insurers, and asset managers like BlackRock, HSBC, and Absa, among others. According to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, the partners have billions of users and handle trillions of dollars in assets across the globe. He claimed that Arc can seamlessly allow local markets and builders to connect to the global economy. Allaire called it the “economic OS of the internet,” and added, “This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy. In fact, BlackRock’s Global Head of Digital Assets, Robert Mitchnick, underscored FX and tokenization as key interests for them in the project. He said, “Exploring Arc will provide insight into how stablecoin-denominated settlement and onchain FX capabilities might enable more efficient capital markets and unlock additional utility for onchain assets. Google, Stripe, and Tether have similar plans. In fact, Tether-backed Plasma [XPL] is already live and handles about $6 billion of the stablecoin supply. It’s.