The stablecoin war has been upgraded from on-chain payment tools to enterprise-level financial infrastructure.
This summer, giants such as Tether, Circle, and Stripe have entered the arena to build chains, attempting to reshape the underlying architecture of payment, settlement, and compliance networks with dedicated L1s.
On its earnings call, Circle announced the launch of its stablecoin-native L1, Arc, which focuses on high performance, strong compliance, and EVM compatibility, positioning itself as a "global financial operating system" that supports cross-border payments, on-chain credit, capital market settlement, and other scenarios.
Arc adopts a consortium chain design with regulated institutions as validators, sub-second finality, USDC and other stablecoins can be directly used as Gas, and it has a built-in foreign exchange engine and optional privacy features. The mainnet Beta is expected to launch in 2026.
Tether has already taken the lead, launching two stablecoin chains, Stable and Plasma. Stable is also EVM-compatible, uses USDT as Gas, and offers zero-fee P2P transfers, making it more suitable for retail and micro-payments; Arc, on the other hand, is backed by Circle's compliance and transparent reserves, making it more suitable for multi-currency, cross-border capital flows. The two differ in terms of fees, target markets, compliance, and profit models.
Another potential disruptor is Stripe. It is working with Paradigm to develop a payment-oriented L1 called Tempo and has acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge and crypto wallet developer Privy for $1.10B, building a full-stack on-chain payment system from issuance and custody to settlement.
The rise of stablecoin-specific chains means that issuers no longer rely entirely on general-purpose public chains such as Ethereum and Tron, but instead tailor the underlying network to meet the needs of payment, clearing, and regulation. However, self-developed L1s face heavy pressure from security, cold start of the ecosystem, and compliance, resulting in high costs and high risks; L2s based on mature public chains may become another efficient and low-risk path.
The battle for stablecoin public chains has only just begun.