BlackRock and Visa Will Secure Circle's Arc. But, Meme Coin Traders Plan to Storm It

Circle opens Arc public mainnet on Wednesday with 11 founding validators drawn from traditional finance. Traders are already positioning for a meme coin rush at launch.

The setup mirrors Robinhood Chain, which launched in July, pitching tokenized assets before speculative trading took over. Circle built Arc for payments and settlement, yet the same crowd is circling again.

Robinhood launched its Arbitrum-based Layer 2 on July 1, around real-world assets (RWA). Retail traders had other plans.

Within a week, meme coins set the pace. Decentralized exchange (DEX) volume hit a record $563.9 million on July 8, per Dune data. Traders created 16,639 tokens on the chain in a single day.

Activity cooled through August before climbing again. The chain cleared $1.06 billion in daily DEX volume on August 29, its first billion-dollar day. The volume also peaked at a new all-time high of $3.7 billion earlier this month.

Why Meme Coin Traders Are Circling a Payments Chain

Arc has drawn the same kind of attention. It is a Layer 1 network built by Circle, the issuer of USD Coin (USDC). Gas is paid in USDC rather than a volatile native token, and Circle designed the chain around payments, foreign exchange, and tokenized securities.

The company raised $222 million in an Arc token presale at a $3 billion valuation. The validator set includes BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, Galaxy, SBI Group, and Standard Chartered.

Speculators spent recent weeks mapping Arc launchpads and pre-mainnet tokens. Their wager is that the chain's opening week resembles the Robinhood Chain trading rush.

"if you've been active on CT, you've probably already seen people calling it the next Robinhood trenches. Maybe they're right," StarPlatinum wrote.

Circle is selling Arc as institutional plumbing. USDC already carries a $74.2 billion market cap, and the first week of trading should show whether bankers or degens get there faster.