Canonical: https://builtonarc.app/guides/arc-ecosystem-map-by-category # Arc's ecosystem, mapped by category Updated 2026-09-02. Built on Arc's ten directory categories mapped against Circle's own 19 partner-page filter tags, and where the two taxonomies don't overlap. > Built on Arc organizes every entry into ten categories built around what builders and users actually search for: Launchpads, NFT & Meme; Exchanges & Trading; Wallets & Custody; Payments & Payouts; Developer Infrastructure; Bridges & Onramps; Banks & Enterprises; Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets; DeFi & Credit; and Compliance & Analytics. Circle's own ecosystem page uses a different, finer-grained taxonomy — around 19 filter tags across four institutional groupings — built for a business-development audience rather than a builder or user audience. This page maps the two against each other and marks where they genuinely don't overlap. ## Why two taxonomies exist Circle's ecosystem page at arc.io/ecosystem is a partner wall aimed at enterprise and institutional visitors — banks, PSPs, and infrastructure buyers who think in terms of "stablecoin issuers" or "borrow/lend" as a category. Built on Arc's ten categories are built for a different audience: builders and users trying to find, say, every launchpad live on Arc, or every wallet that supports it, regardless of whether that project has an institutional relationship with Circle at all. Most Class A web3-native projects — launchpads, DEXs, meme tooling — don't appear on Circle's page at all, because its taxonomy has no bucket for them; see [How projects get listed by Circle](/guides/how-projects-get-listed-by-circle) for that gap in full. ## Built on Arc's ten categories **[Launchpads, NFT & Meme](/category/launchpads-nft-meme)** — token-issuance and IDO platforms alongside NFT collections and meme-token activity. This category has no direct equivalent in Circle's tag set. **[Exchanges & Trading](/category/exchanges-trading)** — decentralized and centralized exchanges, aggregators, and market makers; lending has moved to DeFi & Credit. Loosely corresponds to Circle's "Trading," "CEXs," and "DEXs" tags under its Tools grouping, though Circle's tags there skew toward institutional trading desks and market makers rather than consumer-facing DEX products. **[Wallets & Custody](/category/wallets-custody)** — self-custody wallets and wallet-as-a-service providers. Corresponds closely to Circle's "Wallet Services" tag and, for institutional custody specifically, its "Custodians" tag. **[Payments & Payouts](/category/payments-payouts)** — PSPs, remittance networks, merchant acceptance, payroll, and business accounts. Banks have moved to Banks & Enterprises, issuers to Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets. This maps across several Circle tags at once — "Fintechs," "PSPs," "Payments," and "Financial Services" — reflecting how much more granular Circle's own taxonomy gets for this segment specifically. Note that banks and stablecoin issuers no longer populate this table under v2: {{entries:category=payments-payouts}} **[Developer Infrastructure](/category/developer-infrastructure)** — RPCs, oracles, indexing, account abstraction, and token tooling; compliance vendors have moved to Compliance & Analytics, custodians to Wallets & Custody. Maps to Circle's "RPC Providers," "Developer Tools," "Oracles," and "Crosschain" tags collectively. **[Bridges & Onramps](/category/bridges-onramps)** — cross-chain and fiat-to-Arc rails, unchanged from before. Overlaps partially with Circle's "Crosschain" tag under Infrastructure. **[Banks & Enterprises](/category/banks-enterprises)** — banks, asset managers, card networks, and corporates, including the founding validator cohort. Corresponds to Circle's "Banks" tag under Enterprises. **[Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets](/category/stablecoins-tokenized-assets)** — stablecoin issuers, tokenized funds, and tokenized securities. Corresponds to Circle's "Stablecoin Issuers" and "Tokenized Assets" tags under Issuers. **[DeFi & Credit](/category/defi-credit)** — lending, private credit, yield, and structured products, covered for status and links only; earn content lives at ArcYield. Corresponds to Circle's "Borrow/Lend" and "Yield" tags. **[Compliance & Analytics](/category/compliance-analytics)** — KYC/AML, transaction monitoring, and blockchain intelligence. Corresponds to Circle's "Analytics" tag and part of "Custodians." ## A closer look at each Built on Arc category **Launchpads, NFT & Meme** covers token issuance and initial distribution alongside NFT and meme-token activity — ARCLaunch, uarc.me, and AstraPump's launchpad function all sit here. This is also the category where marketing volume most often outpaces verifiable product. It's the newest and least developed of the ten, consistent with consumer and cultural applications typically arriving after infrastructure and payments rails are in place on a new chain — it's also the category Meme Central covers in the greatest editorial depth, and where Built on Arc's own coverage is intentionally limited to status and links. **Exchanges & Trading** covers decentralized and centralized exchanges and trading-adjacent infrastructure — Radar DEX's market-tracking and aggregation function, AstraPump's trading side, and Lunex's stablecoin AMM all fall here, alongside TowerExchange (Deploys), an official Circle Builder Spotlight name for Arc's native stablecoin DEX aggregator. **Bridges & Onramps** is the smallest of the ten categories today, reflecting how early Arc's cross-chain and fiat-onramp tooling still is pre-mainnet; most of what exists here is inferred from general-purpose bridge providers extending support to Arc rather than Arc-native bridge projects. **Wallets & Custody** spans both consumer self-custody wallets that add Arc support and wallet-as-a-service infrastructure sold to other businesses — Blockradar (Serves, Embedded wallets) is the clearest example of the latter, alongside Fireblocks (Serves, Custodians), Ledger and MetaMask (Integrates, Consumer wallets). Binance Wallet moves to Exchanges & Trading under v2 — it's an exchange-linked wallet, not a standalone custody product. **Payments & Payouts**, described in more depth above, has the deepest bench of confirmed, real-world operating PSPs and remittance businesses — though banks and stablecoin issuers formerly counted here now file under Banks & Enterprises and Stablecoins & Tokenized Assets, changing this category's size and mix. **Developer Infrastructure** covers the unglamorous but essential layer — RPC providers with published Arc docs (QuickNode and GetBlock, Serves), oracle infrastructure (Chainlink, Serves), and account-abstraction and token tooling. Compliance and analytics vendors now file separately under Compliance & Analytics. ## Circle's own taxonomy, as published As of 2 September 2026, Circle's ecosystem page groups its filter tags under four headings. Under **Issuers**: Stablecoin Issuers, Tokenized Assets. Under **Infrastructure**: Analytics, RPC Providers, Developer Tools, Crosschain, Oracles. Under **Tools**: Wallet Services, Trading, CEXs, DEXs, Market Makers, Payments. Under **Enterprises**: Fintechs, PSPs, Financial Services, Banks, Borrow/Lend, Custodians, Yield. Note "Borrow/Lend" and "Yield" as tags Built on Arc deliberately does not build entity or comparison content around; that territory belongs to [ArcYield](https://arcyield.app/?utm_source=builtonarc&utm_medium=guide&utm_campaign=arc). ## Where the two taxonomies genuinely don't meet Two gaps are worth stating plainly rather than papering over with a loose mapping: First, Circle's taxonomy has no launchpad, NFT, meme, gaming, or general consumer-application tag of any kind. Every Class A project in this directory's Launchpads, NFT & Meme category exists entirely outside Circle's own classification system — not miscategorized, just absent. Second, Circle's "Borrow/Lend" and "Yield" tags cover exactly the territory this directory intentionally doesn't own. Any project filed under those tags on Circle's page, if it also appears in Built on Arc's Developer Infrastructure or Exchanges & Trading categories, is covered here only for status and links; lending entries specifically now file under DeFi & Credit (status and links only) — not for yield figures, APY, or lending-rate content, which belongs at ArcYield. ## A note on precision Circle's ecosystem page is a live, filterable product page rather than a static published document, and its exact tag count and grouping can shift between visits — as of 2 September 2026 we count roughly 19 to 20 distinct filter tags across the four groupings above, consistent with the "roughly 19" figure used elsewhere on this site. Built on Arc treats this as a directional description of Circle's taxonomy rather than a claim of exact, permanently fixed tag count, and will revise this page if Circle restructures the page's categories materially. ## How to use this map If you're coming from Circle's ecosystem page looking for a specific institutional category — say, "Custodians" or "RPC Providers" — the corresponding Built on Arc category is [Developer Infrastructure](/category/developer-infrastructure). If you're looking for consumer or launchpad activity Circle's page doesn't track, [Launchpads, NFT & Meme](/category/launchpads-nft-meme) is the category built to fill that gap. Sources: - [Arc ecosystem page](https://www.arc.io/ecosystem) ## Questions **Does Built on Arc use the same categories as Circle's ecosystem page?** No. Built on Arc uses ten builder- and user-facing categories; Circle uses roughly 19 finer-grained institutional tags across four groupings. The two overlap substantially but aren't identical. **Which Built on Arc category has no Circle equivalent?** Launchpads, NFT & Meme is the one Built on Arc category with no Circle equivalent. **Does Built on Arc cover yield and lending protocols?** Not as an entity or earn-content angle — that's covered by ArcYield. Built on Arc may reference such protocols' status and links but not their APY or lending-rate content. **Where do banks and PSPs fit in Built on Arc's categories?** Banks file under Banks & Enterprises; PSPs, remittance, and merchant-acceptance businesses file under Payments & Payouts, the category with the most granular equivalent structure on Circle's own page. **Can I filter Circle's ecosystem page by category the way I can here?** Yes — Circle's page supports filtering by its own tags, but the page itself has no public submission path; see the companion guide on how listing actually works there. **Is this mapping official or Circle-endorsed?** No. This is Built on Arc's own independent analysis of two public taxonomies; Built on Arc is not affiliated with Circle.