Recently, Circle announced in its Q2 financial report that it will launch a public chain called ARC 🚀 specifically designed for stablecoins, natively supporting USDC as the Gas token, and featuring sub-second settlement ⚡, optional privacy 🛡, and other characteristics, clearly aimed at financial institutions and compliant payment scenarios. Meanwhile, payment giant Stripe is also collaborating with Paradigm to develop a high-performance public chain named Tempo, targeting global merchant payments and cross-border clearing 🌍.
The underlying logic is quite straightforward:
📈 The scale of stablecoins is growing rapidly (USDC circulation has reached $65 billion), and distribution costs are soaring, forcing institutions to seek their own settlement networks to reduce costs and gain control.
🛠 Building their own chains means that performance, fees, and upgrade pace can be controlled, avoiding the uncertainties brought by reliance on third-party public chains.
Short-term impact
🔹 These 'special chains' do not directly compete much with general public chains like Ethereum, as they are more inclined towards verticalization, high performance, and compliance-first payment settlement scenarios.
Long-term impact
💸 If USDC natively migrates to ARC and is deeply integrated with payment applications, it may siphon off stablecoin settlement volume and DeFi liquidity from Ethereum.
🛍 When Stripe, PayPal, and others embed on-chain payments directly into merchant systems, developers may prioritize building applications around these special chains.
Opportunities also exist
🔗 Most new chains will maintain EVM compatibility and open cross-chain settlement channels; Ethereum is still expected to serve as a backup layer for settlement and a center for value aggregation — this may actually strengthen its position in a multi-chain landscape.
📌 The entry of giants is both a challenge and a potential booster. The key is whether Ethereum can quickly land more practical applications in the narrative of RWA and stablecoin settlement layers.
