Arc angles for Wall Street's validator seat as Circle's 10% pop says USDC is still minting believers 🏛️

Circle Internet (CRCL) shares climbed about 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the stablecoin issuer reported second-quarter earnings that exceeded profit forecasts, even as revenue came in slightly below Wall Street estimates. Adjusted earnings of 18 cents a share beat the analyst consensus of 16 cents, while revenue and reserve income rose 7% year earlier to $701 million, short of the $712 million expected. Net income from continuing operations reached $48 million, topping estimates of $43 million, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 8% to $143 million.

USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion at the end of June, up 19% from a year earlier but below its 2026 peak of nearly $80 billion. Onchain transaction volume on USDC surged 151% during the quarter to $14.8 trillion. CEO Jeremy Allaire attributed the broader market backdrop to slower crypto activity, while pointing to deeper institutional use. "Our quarterly financial results reflect the current rate environment and a crypto market that has slowed," Allaire said in a statement. "But the institutions using USDC today, like BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered aren't piloting, they are expanding."

The earnings also delivered the most detailed update yet on Arc, Circle's layer-1 blockchain network scheduled to launch its public mainnet on Sept. 16. Circle said more than 100 ecosystem and institutional builders are developing on Arc, and named the network's founding validator set: BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, MoneyGram and additional financial firms. BlackRock plans to deploy its BUIDL tokenized U.S. Treasury fund on the network, while DTCC is building infrastructure to tokenize securities held at its depository.

Circle also highlighted progress on the Circle Payments Network, its stablecoin-based cross-border payments infrastructure, as it works to position Arc as core plumbing for tokenized assets and institutional settlement. The announcements arrive as global banks and asset managers expand their use of blockchain rails for tokenized funds, stablecoin settlement and collateral management, with the broader tokenized asset market continuing to draw interest from traditional finance incumbents.