Circle's Arc blockchain launch swamped by memecoins on day one

Circle's Arc, the institutional Layer 1 backed by BlackRock and other founding validators, spend its first day dominated by memecoins rather than payments and tokenized-asset use cases. Traders behind the meme-token surge had already moved on by the next morning.

The episode underscores the gap between Arc's institutional positioning and how retail traders actually use a new blockchain, even as Circle pitches the chain to banks and payment giants and adds retail on-ramps like Robinhood's planned USDC support on the network.