Stablecoin native model

Arc is purpose-built around stablecoins. USDC is the native gas token, so transaction fees are denominated in dollars rather than a volatile asset. EURC and USYC are natively supported alongside USDC, giving applications access to multi-currency payments and onchain yield without bridging or wrapping. There is no volatile native token on Arc.

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USDC as the native gas token

On most EVM blockchains, a volatile token (such as ETH) serves as the native asset for gas fees and value transfer. Arc replaces this with USDC. Every transaction fee, balance, and native transfer on Arc is denominated in USDC. This means:

• Fees are predictable in dollar terms.
• You hold a single asset for both gas and application-level transfers.
• There is no need to acquire or manage a separate volatile token.

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Two interfaces, one balance

USDC on Arc has two interfaces that share the same underlying balance: The native representation uses 18 decimals, consistent with how ETH works on Ethereum. The ERC-20 interface at 0x3600000000000000000000000000000000000000 uses 6 decimals to match the standard USDC representation on other EVM networks. Because the two interfaces represent one asset, Arc behaves differently from other EVM chains in ways that can break common assumptions:

• USDC.balanceOf(addr) and addr.balance represent the same value in different decimals (6 vs 18). A balanceOf of 0 does not mean the native balance is 0; amounts below 1×10⁻⁶ USDC are truncated in the ERC-20 view.
• Native transfers into or out of a contract also change its ERC-20 USDC balance.
• A native transfer can revert even with a sufficient balance (for example, because of the blocklist or zero-address rules).

Every USDC movement (native sends and ERC-20 transfers alike) emits a standard ERC-20 Transfer log from a system address, Arc’s implementation of EIP-7708 (an Amsterdam-track Ethereum proposal). Because this system event covers all USDC movements at 18-decimal precision, it gives wallets and indexers a single universal source of truth for balance changes. For fee parameters and gas pricing details, see Gas and fees. For the rationale behind stable fee denomination, see Stable fee design.

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Indexing USDC movements

The native system emitter logs a Transfer (18 decimals) for every USDC movement, so indexing it alone gives complete coverage. The ERC-20 USDC contract additionally logs its own Transfer (6 decimals) for ERC-20-interface activity, so a single ERC-20 transfer emits both; match on the emitter address to avoid double-counting. For the full event reference, including emitter addresses, the mint and burn mapping, and legacy native events, see USDC system events. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see Index Arc events.

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Natively supported stablecoins

Beyond USDC, Arc natively supports additional stablecoin assets at the protocol level, meaning they are deployed as pre-configured contracts at genesis, not bridged or wrapped from other blockchains.

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EURC

EURC is Circle’s euro-denominated stablecoin. It is deployed as a standard ERC-20 token on Arc with 6 decimals, enabling euro-denominated payments, FX workflows, and multi-currency applications without relying on third-party bridges. For the EURC contract address, see Contract addresses.

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USYC

USYC is a yield-bearing token representing shares of a tokenized money market fund, a regulated investment vehicle that holds short-duration U.S. Treasury securities and distributes yield to token holders. It provides onchain access to regulated, low-risk yield for institutional participants. USYC is only accessible to institutions outside the United States, subject to eligibility restrictions and a $100,000 USD minimum investment. For token addresses and testnet faucet instructions, see Contract addresses.

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Design rationale

Arc’s stablecoin-native model is a deliberate architectural choice, not a compatibility layer added after launch. Three principles guided the design.

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No volatile native token

Traditional blockchains require users to hold a volatile native token to pay fees. This creates friction for financial applications: users must acquire the token, manage price exposure, and convert between the fee token and the assets they actually want to use. Arc eliminates this by making USDC the native token from day one.

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Single gas denomination at launch

Arc launches with USDC as the sole gas token rather than supporting multi-token gas payments from the start. A single denomination simplifies the fee market, avoids oracle dependencies for gas price conversion, and keeps the protocol’s economic model straightforward. Multi-stablecoin gas payment through paymasters (smart contracts that sponsor or redirect gas fees on behalf of a user) is not supported at launch.

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Stablecoins as first-class primitives

USDC, EURC, and USYC are not tokens added after launch. They are integrated at the protocol level, which means applications can compose across stable assets with consistent interfaces and without external dependencies. This positions Arc as infrastructure specifically designed for payments, lending, FX, and treasury management.