Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group plans to prioritize building more resilient infrastructure in 2026 to drive broader adoption among businesses and institutions.
In a blog post on Thursday, Circle’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Nikhil Chandhok, said the company intends to advance Arc—its layer-1 blockchain designed for institutional and large-scale use—from testnet toward full production.
Circle also aims to expand the utility and reach of its tokens—USDC, EURC, USYC, and partner-launched stablecoins—by deploying them across more blockchain networks.
“That means enhancing native support on key networks, strengthening integration with Arc, and making it easier for institutional users to hold, transfer, and program with these assets as part of their daily operations,” Chandhok said.
Stablecoins were among the hottest topics in crypto in 2025, as the U.S. introduced new regulations and institutions and banks explored launching their own tokens.
Institutional adoption on the rise
Circle said it plans to scale its applications, including its payments network, to allow institutions to adopt stablecoin payments “without having to build and operate the underlying infrastructure themselves.”
The company will also continue developing USDC for seamless use across multiple chains, enhancing the user experience by simplifying “chain complexities” and providing better developer tools, Chandhok noted.
“In addition, we will keep expanding our partner and developer ecosystem to create more utility and extend global reach, bringing the benefits of stablecoins and internet-scale finance to more markets and use cases,” he added.
USDC holds second-largest market share
USDC is the second-largest U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin by market capitalization, with over $70 billion, according to DeFi data aggregator DefiLlama. Tether (USDT) leads the market, holding more than $186 billion of the $306 billion total.
The stablecoin sector surpassed $300 billion in market capitalization for the first time in October 2025, driven primarily by USDT, USDC, and Ethena Labs’ yield-bearing stablecoin, USDe.
