Two UAE Banks, Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank are participating in the testnet for Circle Internet Group’s for Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain network designed to meet the needs of developers and companies bringing more economic activity onchain.
Circle launched Arc in October 2025, with a global collaboration of 100 companies across the financial and economic ecosystem. Arc is now available for developers and enterprises to deploy, test and build on what Circle describes as the new Economic Operating System (“OS”) for the internet.
According to the press release, Arc represents a major step forward in building open, programmable financial infrastructure for the global economy. Featuring predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack platform, Arc enables a wide range of use cases across lending, capital markets, foreign exchange (FX), and global payments.
“With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test. Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments, and support local economies across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle. “Arc presents the opportunity for every type of company to build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure—advancing a shared vision that a more open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system can be built natively on the internet.”
Leading banks and asset managers engaging with Arc include: Absa (ABG:JSE), Bank Frick, BlackRock Inc. (BLK:NYSE), BTG Pactual (BPAC11:B3), Clearbank, Commerzbank (CBK:FWB), Deutsche Bank (DB:NYSE), Emirates NBD (EMIRATESNBD:DFM), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB:ADX), FirstRand Bank (FSR:JSE), Fiserv (FI:NYSE), Goldman Sachs (GS:NYSE), HSBC (HSBA:LSE), Invesco (IVZ:NYSE), Kyobo Life, SBI Holdings (8473:TSE), Société Générale (GLE:EPA), Standard Chartered (STAN:LSE), WisdomTree (WT:NYSE).
Interestingly First Abu Dhabi bank is working on an AED stablecoin with ADI Foundation, while Emirates NBD has been building its capabilities in the digital asset space.
As per Circle, one of the killer applications on Arc is payments, which builds on the value of a general-purpose Economic OS and enables frictionless payment utility for people, businesses, and institutions around the world. That same architecture extends to agentic AI systems, enabling a future where autonomous agents are programmatically sending, exchanging, and settling value globally in real time. A broad array of technology and payment-focused firms spanning global technology leaders, fintech, cross-border payments providers, retail payment networks, B2B payments, remittances, and e-commerce platforms are engaging with Arc.
Arc also provides core infrastructure for issuers of fiat stablecoins, tokenized equities, credit funds, and money market funds. Central to this is Arc’s roadmap for stablecoins as tokens for gas fees, as well as native infrastructure that will be deployed on Arc for core stablecoin swaps and FX liquidity.
In an interview with CNBC Sara Eisen on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative 2025 in Saudi Arabia, Circle Internet Group (CRCL) Jeremy Allaire on being asked about USDC stablecoin noting that usage has expanded in 2025 with demand in emerging market very significant, singled out the Middle East noting that businesses use digital dollars to move value quickly across trading partners.
