Arc network statistics

This page covers Arc in its first weeks of mainnet. Arc went live on September 16, 2026, so any published series is still short and volatile. Rather than publish invented numbers, this page tells you exactly where to read each metric live and how to interpret it. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Where do you find Arc's live network statistics?

Arc is Circle's Layer-1 for stablecoin settlement, live on public mainnet since September 16, 2026, with gas paid in USDC and deterministic finality of roughly 780 milliseconds. This hub does not run its own indexer for Arc, so rather than publish numbers we cannot stand behind, this page points you to where to read them live and tells you how to interpret them once you do.

For every figure below — transaction counts, active addresses, TVL, USDC supply, average fees, block times, validator counts — go to explorer.arc.io and read it directly off the chain. Any third-party dashboard's numbers should trace back to the explorer or an RPC query; treat the explorer as the source of truth.

Network activity

Read directly from the Arc block explorer: transactions in the last 7 days, daily average, cumulative transactions since mainnet, active addresses, new addresses.

Value on the chain

Total value locked in DeFi on Arc is best read from a named third-party DeFi aggregator (aggregators disagree on inclusion rules, so always cite which one). USDC supply on Arc is readable from the USDC token contract's total supply on the explorer. Net bridge inflow and stablecoin transfer volume are explorer figures.

Cost and performance

Average and median transaction fee, and average block time, are all readable live from the explorer. Arc's protocol design targets about $0.01 per transaction with EIP-1559 fee smoothing and a 20 gwei minimum base fee; finality is deterministic and sub-second (~780ms) by design of Arc's Malachite consensus, which does not change week to week.

Validators and decentralisation

The founding validator set (eleven members: BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo and Visa) is fixed at launch. Current active validator count is readable from the explorer. Why the validator composition matters is covered at /arc/validators.

How is each metric defined and where does it come from?

Transaction counts are raw counts of included transactions from the block explorer, not deduplicated by sender and not filtered for spam or self-transfers. A count measures chain usage, not economic activity, and one application looping transactions can move it a long way. Read them from the explorer's chart or analytics view rather than from a third-party dashboard, since the explorer is the source those dashboards derive from; /arc/arcscan-guide covers navigating it.

Total value locked is the aggregate USD value of assets deposited in DeFi protocols on Arc, as reported by third-party aggregators. It is the most quoted chain statistic and the most misread. TVL counts the same dollar twice when an asset is deposited, borrowed against and redeposited; it moves with prices rather than with user behaviour; and aggregators apply different inclusion rules, so two sources disagree and both can be right. Always name the aggregator, which is why the table names it in the cell rather than in a footnote.

USDC supply on Arc is the amount of USDC issued on the chain, readable from the USDC token contract's total supply on the explorer. It is more meaningful here than on most networks, because USDC is the gas asset as well as the settlement asset, so supply tracks willingness to hold funds on the chain rather than a bridge's inventory.

Active addresses counts distinct addresses that sent at least one transaction in the window. It is a weak proxy for users: one person can hold many addresses, and one custodial address can represent many people.

Average transaction fee is the mean USD cost of a transaction over the window. Arc charges gas in USDC at 18 decimals, removing the usual step of converting a native-token fee at a fluctuating price. Fees vary by complexity: a plain transfer and a contract interaction are not comparable, which is why the median is tracked alongside the mean. /arc/gas-fees explains how fees are constructed.

Block time and finality are distinct. Block time is how often blocks are produced; finality is when a block can no longer be reverted. Arc uses Malachite consensus with deterministic sub-second finality of roughly 780 milliseconds, so a settled transaction is settled rather than probably settled. Finality is a protocol property from Circle's documentation and does not change week to week; block time is measured.

How can you check these numbers yourself?

Every figure here is reproducible from public sources: counts and charts from the block explorer, raw values from any RPC endpoint. Arc mainnet's RPC endpoint is https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io.

export ARC_RPC=https://rpc.mainnet.arc.io

# Current block height
cast block-number --rpc-url $ARC_RPC

# Transaction count in the latest block
cast block latest --rpc-url $ARC_RPC --json | jq '.transactions | length'

# Current base fee, denominated in USDC at 18 decimals (minimum base fee is 20 gwei)
cast base-fee --rpc-url $ARC_RPC

Sampling block height twice a minute apart and dividing gives you a block time you measured rather than one you read. Testnet remains queryable at chain ID 5042002 via rpc.testnet.arc.io, explorer testnet.arcscan.app, faucet faucet.circle.com. Testnet figures are useful for orientation and useless as a proxy for economic activity. /arc/mainnet-vs-testnet sets out the distinction.

How should you read a chain's statistics honestly?

Read them against each other. A rising transaction count with a flat address count usually means existing users doing more, or one application generating volume. Rising TVL with flat transfer volume means capital is arriving but not being used. Rising fees usually mean congestion; on Arc, where fees are quoted in USDC, a rising average more often means the transaction mix has shifted toward heavier contract calls.

Treat the first months of any new chain's figures as noisy. Launch incentives, migration flows and one-off deployments distort early data in both directions, and week-over-week change carries more information than any single week's level. That is the honest reason this page shows its methodology as prominently as its numbers: in a chain's opening weeks the methodology is the more durable half.

How this page stays honest

This page deliberately does not embed a live-updating table of invented or stale numbers. Every metric it names comes with a pointer to where you can read the current value yourself — mostly explorer.arc.io — and a note on how that metric is commonly misread.

What is Arc's TVL right now?

TVL on Arc is the aggregate USD value of assets deposited in DeFi protocols on the chain, measured by third-party aggregators whose inclusion rules differ, so the figure is only meaningful quoted alongside the aggregator that produced it and the date it was read. Read the current figure directly from a named DeFi aggregator that tracks Arc, alongside the date you checked it.

How many transactions does Arc process?

Read current transaction counts directly from explorer.arc.io. For a pre-launch reference point, Arc's public testnet carried roughly 13.5 million transactions per week as of mid-August 2026, before mainnet launched on September 16, 2026.

What does a transaction cost on Arc?

Fees are paid in USDC rather than a volatile native token, which is why an Arc fee is quotable in cents without a price lookup. Arc targets about $0.01 per transaction on mainnet via EIP-1559 fee smoothing with a 20 gwei minimum base fee. Read the current average and median directly from explorer.arc.io.

How often is this page updated?

This page's methodology is reviewed periodically; for live figures, always go to explorer.arc.io rather than a cached table on this page.

Why do different sites report different TVL for Arc?

Because aggregators define TVL differently: which protocols are included, whether staked and restaked positions count once or twice, whether idle bridged assets count at all, and at what price assets are marked. There is no single correct figure, only figures with stated methodologies. Compare like with like, or compare direction rather than level.