Arc, the blockchain that stablecoin issuer Circle built for banks and payments, spent its first day as a memecoin playground, CoinDesk's Oliver Knight reported.
The network launched Wednesday with BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard and DTCC among the validators that verify its transactions. It handled 7.83 million transactions in 24 hours, yet only about 624,000 USDC transfers have ever run across it.
Memecoins soaked up the action and sank fast, with TOLLY, LONG and COOL down 56% to 77% from launch highs.
Circle drew fire after Rachel Mayer, its VP of product for Arc, promoted a memecoin called DUKE with an AI-generated image she said showed CEO Jeremy Allaire's dog. Circle didn't immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment.
The DeAI takeaway: Arc's blockchain, designed to become foundational infrastructure for agentic finance with banks and major institutions as validators, risks getting flooded by crypto-degen hijinks.