Arc mainnet launch partners: the full list

On 5 August 2026, Circle named its founding validator cohort and a long list of integration partners in a single press release ahead of Arc's 16 September 2026 mainnet launch. This page lists every name from that release, grouped by what each actually does, and nothing else — no names from other announcements have been added, and none of Circle's stated intentions have been upgraded to "confirmed shipped" status.

Circle's 5 August 2026 release is the single most complete public statement of who is committing to Arc ahead of mainnet. It is also, by its nature, a list of intentions: naming a partner in a press release is not the same as that partner running a live integration. This page reproduces the release's groupings faithfully and adds only status context — it does not add names Circle didn't name, and it does not claim any of these integrations are live, because Arc mainnet itself is not live as of 2 September 2026.

Founding validators (11)

These are the institutions Circle named as its founding validator cohort — the permissioned set of nodes expected to run consensus at mainnet launch. Circle itself also operates the network alongside them.

BlackRock — Integrates (Banks & Enterprises → Asset managers, Founding validator) · [DTCC](/project/dtcc) (The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation), [Global Payments](/project/global-payments), [ICE](/project/ice), [SBI Group](/project/sbi-group), [Standard Chartered](/project/standard-chartered), [Sumitomo Corporation](/project/sumitomo-corporation) — Integrates (Banks & Enterprises, Founding validator) · [Galaxy](/project/galaxy) — Integrates (Exchanges & Trading → Market makers, Founding validator) · [Mastercard](/project/mastercard), [Visa](/project/visa) — Integrates (Banks & Enterprises → Card networks, Founding validator) · [MoneyGram](/project/moneygram) — Integrates (Payments & Payouts → Remittance, Founding validator)

For a full breakdown of what running a founding validator seat means and doesn't mean, see Arc's founding validators, explained.

Institutional asset and tokenization integrations

[BlackRock](/project/blackrock) — Integrates (Banks & Enterprises → Asset managers, Founding validator). The release states BlackRock is "expected to deploy" BUIDL, its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, on Arc, enabling institutional subscriptions and redemptions on-chain. This is a stated expectation, not a confirmed live deployment as of 2 September 2026.

[DTCC](/project/dtcc) — Integrates (Banks & Enterprises, Founding validator). Beyond its validator seat, DTCC is named for a collaboration to tokenize DTC-custodied assets on Arc, with a start date the release places in the second half of 2027 — well past mainnet launch, and a useful reminder that "named partner" spans a wide range of timelines.

DeFi and capital-markets protocols

Named for providing "liquid markets for borrowing, trading, and onchain capital deployment": [Aave](/project/aave), [Aerodrome](/project/aerodrome), [Morpho](/project/morpho), and [Uniswap Labs](/project/uniswap-labs) — Deploys (Exchanges & Trading; status and links only, earn content lives at ArcYield) · FalconX, [Galaxy](/project/galaxy), GSR, Keyrock, Nonco, and XFX — Integrates (Exchanges & Trading → Market makers).

Aave, Aerodrome, Morpho, and Uniswap sit squarely in yield and DEX territory that Built on Arc does not cover as an entity or earn angle — see ArcYield for protocol-level coverage once these are live on Arc, and Meme Central for DEX and trading how-to content. FalconX, Galaxy, GSR, Keyrock, and XFX are market-making and liquidity-provision firms rather than consumer-facing protocols; Nonco was named without a public product description in Circle's release.

Stablecoin payments and settlement routing

Named for "routing real-world stablecoin payment and settlement flows": Rain and Wirex — Integrates (Payments & Payouts → Cards) · Thunes — Integrates (Payments & Payouts → Remittance). All three are existing card-issuing or cross-border payments companies extending into stablecoin settlement rather than new Arc-native products.

Exchanges, wallets, and custody

Named for "seamless access to USDC on Arc" and asset custody: Binance Wallet, [Kraken](/project/kraken), and [Upbit](/project/upbit) — Integrates (Exchanges & Trading → Exchanges) · [Chainlink](/project/chainlink) — Serves (Developer Infrastructure → Oracles) · [Fireblocks](/project/fireblocks) — Serves (Wallets & Custody → Custodians) · [Ledger](/project/ledger) and [MetaMask](/project/metamask) — Integrates (Wallets & Custody → Consumer wallets) · [Uniswap Labs](/project/uniswap-labs) (named again in this group in the release) — Deploys (status and links only). Chainlink's role here is oracle and interoperability infrastructure rather than custody specifically; the release groups it alongside the wallet and exchange names.

Exploring integrations, not yet committed

BNY is named as "exploring integrations" — the softest language in the release, short of no mention at all (Integrates — Banks & Enterprises → Banks; no Founding validator mark — Announced/exploring only, per the canonical role map's HSBC/Goldman Sachs/BNY treatment). Treat BNY's status as announced in the loosest sense: a stated interest, not a confirmed integration plan.

Why partner naming varies so much in specificity

Reading the release closely, the level of detail Circle provides varies by partner, and that variance is informative. BlackRock and DTCC each get a named product and, in DTCC's case, a specific future start date — the kind of detail that suggests a signed agreement with defined scope. The DeFi and capital-markets protocol group, by contrast, gets a single collective description ("liquid markets for borrowing, trading, and onchain capital deployment") applied to ten companies at once, with no per-company detail. The exchange and custody group gets similarly collective treatment — consistent with a release designed to maximize recognizable names attached to Arc's launch narrative, which is common ahead of a major launch, but it means those groups deserve more skepticism about integration depth than the two headline institutional names do, until each ships something independently verifiable.

How to verify any name on this list yourself

For any name above, the same three-step check applies. First, look for the partner's own announcement — a press release, blog post, or official social account post independent of Circle's — since a company naming its own involvement is a stronger signal than being named by a counterparty alone. Second, check whether the claimed integration is testnet-verifiable: a deployed contract or product on Arc's public testnet at testnet.arcscan.app, checkable independently of any announcement. Third, wait for mainnet: as of 2 September 2026, no name on this list can be confirmed live on Arc, because mainnet does not exist yet, and Built on Arc will not upgrade any entry to "Live on Arc" status without an independently observable transaction or deployment after 16 September 2026.

What this list does not include

This release does not mention Class A web3-native launchpads, DEXs, or NFT platforms (TowerExchange, Radar DEX, AstraPump, and similar), nor does it mention the Circle Developer Grants cohort of fintech startups — those are separate Circle programs covered in Circle's Arc grant recipients, confirmed. It also does not include every institution reported elsewhere as an Arc testnet participant; PhotonPay and BTG Pactual, for example, confirmed testnet participation through their own channels rather than this specific release, and are covered in What's actually live on Arc mainnet.

Reading this list correctly

Every name above is real and Circle-sourced. What varies is distance from a live product: BlackRock's BUIDL deployment is an operating fund extending onto a new chain; DTCC's tokenization work has a stated 2027 start; several DeFi protocols will show up as yield opportunities the moment they're live and are covered elsewhere for that reason. Built on Arc's status system exists so this list doesn't flatten into "here are Arc's partners" without the nuance of what stage each partnership is at — as of 2 September 2026, none of it is confirmed live on Arc, because Arc mainnet does not yet exist.

Sources: - Circle Announces Founding Validator Cohort and Major Integrations for Arc