PANews reported on October 28th that Circle ( CRCL, issuer of USDC ) has launched a public beta of its payments-focused Arc blockchain, with participation from over 100 institutions, including Visa , HSBC , BlackRock , AWS , Anthropic , Coinbase , and Kraken . Arc is positioned as a foundational layer for financial services, offering US dollar billing, sub-second settlement, optional privacy, and integration with the Circle payment system. Visa is testing stablecoin settlement to accelerate cross-border payments, while BlackRock is exploring stablecoin settlement and on-chain FX . Circle's stated long-term goal is decentralization, with open validators and governance.