When Robinhood Chain launched, chanting “compliant stocks” and “on-chain finance L2,” who could have imagined sparking an on-chain Meme renaissance?
Can you get in early on Arc Chain, the chain also backed by crypto giant Circle and championing "stablecoin finance"?
In fact, according to official announcements, Arc opened its public mainnet on September 16, but the launchpad and Meme have already sparked excitement 📈
I. What is Arc?
Arc is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 built by Circle, the issuer of USDC, with a clear positioning: designed specifically for stablecoin finance. Circle’s slogan is “the economic operating system of the internet”.
⬇️ We’ve outlined the following four key features for you:
👉 Gas: Pay gas fees in USDC, priced in USD—no need to hold volatile chain tokens to mint or trade.
👉 Speed: Final confirmation in about one second, Malachite consensus engine
👉 Compatibility: EVM-compatible; tools like Solidity and wallets, as well as Uniswap, can be used directly.
👉 Verification mechanism: Permissioned validators — not just anyone can become a block producer
What does the emergence of Arc really mean?
Circle used to issue dollars only on other people’s chains; now it will own the settlement layer on which dollars run. For institutions, this means predictable fees, instant settlement, and compliant access points.
Thus, Arc’s funding round was also impressive, with a pre-sale in May 2026 at a fully diluted valuation of approximately $3 billion, raising $222 million, led by a16z, with participation from BlackRock, Apollo, ICE, and others.
For retail participants, Arc, as a new chain endorsed by Wall Street, offers highly attractive memes during its early stages, especially given the precedent set by Robinhood 🤑
🔥 II. Where will Arc's hot money flow?
Opportunities can generally be divided into three layers.
🌱开荒层: Meme coins and launchpads available for trading now
The path in the first few weeks of a new chain is largely set: stablecoins enter → new coins on the launchpad → leading projects aligned with a few narratives → platform tokens.
Unlike other chains, Arc’s uniqueness lies in creating, buying, and selling directly using USDC, reducing friction compared to “buying the native token first, then bridging.” However, once the public mainnet and official cross-chain are launched, these “legacy tokens” may be treated as dragon one—or potentially replaced by new capital.
🛠️ Application Layer: DeFi and Trading Terminals
Fomo and edgeX have publicly committed to launching on day one. The expected list also includes Uniswap, Aerodrome, Aave, Morpho, as well as market makers such as FalconX, GSR, and Keyrock.
💎 Medium- to long-term layer: Tokenized assets and ARC itself.
BUIDL and DTC tokenization won't truly scale until 2027. ARC tokens have lock-up periods and are not the main focus for on-chain hot money right now. For those bullish on Payfi, it’s time to start researching closely.
Three: Arc’s Hidden Opportunities: Leading Launchpads & Memes
🚀 Launchpad:
1. TOLLY (approximately $2.47 million, 0xbc43ce8dec648ea298c4275559b81d6261c90b67)
Introduction: The platform token for the Tolly Launchpad + DEX. New projects do not use bonding curves; all supply is directly deposited into a permanently locked USDC pool. A 1% fee is charged on trades: of the USDC fees generated from buys, approximately 64% goes to the creator, 12% to holder rewards, 10% to the protocol, and the remainder is used to buy back and burn TOLLY and the corresponding project token; all project token fees from sells are fully burned.
Logic: Bet on it becoming the PONS of the Arc chain; once it takes off, you’ll capture the entire chain’s token issuance traffic.
2. WARP (approximately $870,000, 0x384c60f98ecd4c26345499345c03d677e40f115e)
Introduction: Tokens related to the Warp Launchpad/Trading Terminal. Follow a bonding curve; upon reaching a market cap of approximately $69,000, migrate to WarpDex and burn the LP. Plan to use Circle CCTP to burn USDC on Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum, and automatically purchase tokens upon minting on Arc.
Logic: Bet on it becoming Arc’s cross-chain launch entry point, allowing users to seamlessly pull USDC from other chains directly into Arc’s same curve pool, making cross-chain transfers feel effortless.
🤑Meme:
http://1.COOL($2.94 million, 0xeb64987643db71c76b2a2be7e723decc995e5b37)
A meme created by the community based on a mascot from a website tracking USDC activity, featuring a blue stablecoin wearing sunglasses.
2. Architects (approximately $820,000, 0x8bcb94279fc2c984ec34e0c1f2192df8c69ea4f0)
Circle / Arc has repeatedly referred to community contributors as Architects, and CEO Jeremy Allaire has also used this term.
3. ARCAT (approximately $710,000, 0x07704b06981ea962b87296362a1281484d160000)
One of the earlier Arc cat coins, originating from the "Cat Bat Hat Fat Rat" video shared by USDC.
4. BEANCAT (approximately $275,000, 0x41c8A71f630c636294009fa4FB0CC4c3bBE674fe)
In line with the early profile picture of the @arc account (the "bean" cat avatar from around 2012), the community refers to it as CashCat on other chains.
Four: Before you mint Arc Meme, you’ll need to prepare Arc USDC first!
At this point, some hands-on students might ask: Why can’t I buy these coins using USDC?!
Don't rush—you need Arc USDC.
After being compiled by the community, the most direct method currently is through the OTC market Unstable:
https://unstabletrd.com. You can purchase from sellers who already hold Arc USDC using USDC on the Ethereum mainnet, with prices set by the sellers themselves.
However, due to supply shortages, Arc USDC currently trades at a significant premium. Arc USDC: USDC typically trades at a 1.8:1 ratio. Additionally, Unstable charges a 3% fee, making the entry cost for Arc relatively high.
If you receive Arc USDC and your wallet does not automatically recognize Arc, you can manually add the network.
Name: ARC Mainnet
RPC URL:rpc.arc-scan.org
Chain ID: 5042
Symbol: USDC
If the RPC is slow, you can also try the backup:
🔥 Conclusion: Before you sign off, confirm these few things
Currently tradable assets are private Arc mainnet assets with no official endorsement. Official mainnet RPC, block explorer, and cross-chain parameters are subject to Circle’s announcements. Network congestion and transaction failures on community nodes are common.
Early top-tier tokens had market caps in the hundreds of thousands, but liquidity pools were often only tens of thousands to a hundred thousand dollars, making it easy to crash prices when entering or exiting.
Therefore, paying attention to contracts, liquidity, launchpad quality, and entry points is crucial to surviving Arc’s early stages. 