Arc, the Layer-1 blockchain built by Circle, just had a very good week for stablecoin supply. Its stablecoin market cap reached approximately $670.75 million on October 19, 2026, a 30.05% jump from the week before.
That works out to roughly $155 million in fresh stablecoins in seven days. For a chain that went live barely a month ago, that is a brisk pace.
The catch is that the money and the people are moving in opposite directions. Stablecoins are piling in while daily active wallets have reportedly fallen 94% from their launch-week peak.
USDC does nearly all the heavy lifting
If you were wondering which stablecoin powers Arc, the answer will not shock you. USDC, Circle’s own dollar token, accounted for $661.55 million of the total, or 98.63% of the chain’s stablecoin supply as of October 19.
The broader picture is also sizable. Total value locked on Arc, meaning the combined value of assets deposited into apps on the chain, stood at $792.96 million on October 19.
Stablecoins make up the bulk of that figure. In plain terms, most of the money parked on Arc is digital dollars rather than more volatile tokens.
A fast start, then a quieter crowd
Arc’s mainnet launched on September 16, 2026. It did not start from zero: nearly $649 million in USDC was deployed at launch.
That capital went straight into familiar DeFi plumbing. Major lending protocols Aave and Morpho integrated with Arc, giving the new chain working money markets from day one.
The current USDC figure of $661.55 million now sits above that launch-day level. The latest week’s 30.05% surge means supply had dipped below its starting point before rebounding.
User activity tells a less cheerful story. On-chain data shows daily active wallets dropped 94% from their launch-week high, and DEX trading volumes have also declined since the initial excitement.
Not every corner of the chain has cooled off. Lending markets remain active, with notable borrowing against cirBTC, Circle’s tokenized Bitcoin, on Morpho.
Institutional backing and a concentration question
Arc has some heavyweight names in its corner. Backing from BlackRock, Visa and Mastercard has contributed to liquidity across the ecosystem.
There is a wrinkle, though. A significant share of Arc’s stablecoin supply appears to sit in a limited number of addresses.
Concentration cuts both ways. A few large holders can lift supply figures quickly, and they can also pull capital out just as fast.
What this means
For anyone tracking Arc, the key tension is between capital and engagement. A $670.75 million stablecoin base and nearly $793 million in TVL are real numbers, but a 94% drop in daily active wallets suggests the chain has not yet built a broad, sticky user base.
The concentration issue sharpens the risk. If a handful of addresses drove the latest $155 million weekly increase, the headline growth could reverse with a few large withdrawals, and lower user activity could amplify that kind of volatility.
On the other hand, borrowing against cirBTC on Morpho shows there is genuine demand for credit on Arc, and that demand tends to be stickier than speculative trading.
There is also a strategic angle for Circle. Arc gives the company a chain where USDC is the default currency rather than one guest among many, and 98.63% market share is about as close to default as it gets. Arc’s network fees are payable directly in USDC, removing the need for separate gas tokens.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.