Circle Teams Up with Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock: Is it Worth Investing?
Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has achieved a significant milestone by launching the testnet of its Arc blockchain alongside industry leaders like Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock. This Layer-1 infrastructure aims to become the economic operating system of the internet, with over 100 institutional participants onboard. A clear indication of the growing synergy between traditional finance and blockchain technology.
Translated on October 30, 2025 at 09:14 by Simon Dumoulin
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Circle, An Architecture Designed for Massive Institutional Adoption
Circle has designed Arc as a direct response to the needs of financial institutions that have hesitated to fully engage with the on-chain economy. The network uses USDC as its native gas token, an innovation that radically changes the user experience. Transaction fees become predictable in dollars, eliminating the usual volatility of traditional blockchains where gas prices fluctuate with the value of the native token.
🚨 BREAKING: Circle $CRCL launches the Arc public testnet, a next-gen Layer-1 blockchain designed as an “Economic OS” for global finance. It offers sub-second finality, dollar-based fees, and privacy options, with 100+ partners already onboard. pic.twitter.com/96I9C2cwiF
Transaction finality in seconds constitutes another compelling argument for regulated financial operations. Banks and institutions handling significant volumes need this rapid certainty to integrate blockchain into their existing processes. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s CEO, positions Arc as the infrastructure capable of connecting every local market to the global economy, facilitating credit, capital markets, and cross-border payments.
The testnet brings together an impressive ecosystem where Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Apollo, BNY Mellon, and State Street coexist. This coalition demonstrates that the world’s largest financial institutions are seriously betting on the tokenized future of finance. Coinbase and Uniswap contribute their liquidity expertise, while Alchemy, Chainlink, and Anthropic strengthen the technical infrastructure.
Regulatory Compliance and Decentralization: The Delicate Balance
One of the major challenges for institutional blockchain adoption remains regulatory compliance. Arc integrates optional privacy controls that respect data protection standards while maintaining the transparency necessary for audits and regulations. This hybrid approach addresses the conflicting requirements of regulators who demand both traceability and personal data protection.
Elliptic, a blockchain compliance specialist, is already integrating its monitoring tools into the Arc ecosystem. This collaboration ensures that transactions meet the AML and KYC standards required by global financial authorities. For institutions like BlackRock or Goldman Sachs, these guarantees are non-negotiable before any large-scale deployment.
Circle currently oversees testnet operations, but the roadmap envisions a gradual transition to decentralized governance driven by the community. This evolution will be closely scrutinized by the market, as it will determine whether Arc can truly balance institutional control and the decentralized principles that have made crypto successful.
The Emergence of Local Stablecoins on Global Infrastructure
The announcement from BDACS, a South Korean company, illustrates a major strategic trend. The issuance of KRW1, a stablecoin backed by the Korean won, directly on Arc shows that blockchain is becoming the infrastructure of choice for regional stablecoins. This model could be replicated with stablecoins backed by the euro, yen, or other major currencies.
🇰🇷 UPDATE: South Korea’s KRW1 stablecoin is rolling out on Circle’s new blockchain Arc. pic.twitter.com/EFdkbSZec0
This approach addresses a growing demand from governments and local institutions that want to participate in the on-chain economy while maintaining an anchor to their national currency. Arc positions itself as the unifying platform where these different stablecoins can interact seamlessly, creating a true decentralized exchange system for the digital era.
Analysts consider Arc to be Circle’s most ambitious project to date, potentially capable of redefining cross-border payments and tokenized financial activities. The presence of Visa and Mastercard, which process billions of transactions daily in the traditional world, brings invaluable credibility and operational expertise to this critical infrastructure project.
How to Invest in Circle?
For several months now, Bitget has offered the opportunity to invest in Circle’s tokenized shares. Currently at $131, the potential returns on CRCL are substantial. Indeed, Circle has an advantage over its only competitor Tether: legitimacy and regulatory support.
Here’s how to easily purchase with a $10 bonus offer:
Here’s how to do it in 5 minutes, starting from just $5!
Create an account: Go to Bitget or the mobile app. Register with your email, choose a password and validate the link you receive. (New users: claim a welcome pack worth 6200 USDT!)
Verify your identity: Send a photo of your ID and a selfie. It takes 5-30 minutes and is mandatory for buying and trading.
Add funds: Click on “Buy crypto”. Pay by Visa/Mastercard (fast, zero fees!) or via P2P (no fees, via bank transfer, PayPal, Wise or +100 methods). Minimum $5.
Buy your CRCL: In “Spot”, type “CRCL” in the search, select CRCL/USDT (Tokenized Stocks or RWA section), enter the amount in euros (or USD), verify and confirm.
Charles Ledoux is a Bitcoin and blockchain technology specialist. A graduate of the Crypto Academy, he has been a Bitcoin miner for over a year. He has written numerous masterclasses to educate newcomers to the industry and has authored over 2,000 articles on cryptocurrency. Now, he aims to share his passion for crypto through his articles for InvestX.
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