Arc Ecosystem Guide | Apps You Can Use Now, How to Start from Japan, and Where the ARC Token Stands

Arc is a stablecoin blockchain developed by Circle, the issuer of USDC. Its mainnet opened to the public on September 16, 2026, and everything from bringing in USDC to swaps, deposits and futures trading is already running.

However, the list of participating companies that Arc has published does not separate what is running from what is still to come. Only part of it is something individuals can actually use themselves.

Arc is a chain where fees are paid in USDC, so you do not need to hold a dedicated gas token such as ETH. The official bridge and the major DeFi apps are open to anyone.

The official ecosystem page lists 134 companies, but most of them are banks, payment providers, custodians and developer infrastructure. By our editorial count, 32 of them offer products that individuals use directly. The page shows no operating status, and Uniswap and OpenSea, both already live, are not on it. Whether an app works has to be checked on that app's own screen.

From Japan, SBI Group and Sumitomo Corporation are among the founding validators. Neither, however, has announced a consumer service on Arc. The chain's design is covered in our Arc explainer.

Swaps, deposits, futures trading and NFT trading can all be done from each app's official interface.

Swaps and NFT Trading: Uniswap, Aero, XyloNet, Synthra, OpenSea

Uniswap has added Arc to its network options, and you can swap USDC and EURC directly. Before you swap, check the amount you will receive shown on the screen.

Image: Network selection on Uniswap (captured September 16, 2026)

Aero is the new brand that merges Aerodrome and Velodrome. Its lightweight version, "Aero Lite," is now running on Arc, and you can swap and provide liquidity from app.aero.xyz. Only a limited set of tokens is supported. aerodrome.finance still serves Base, so to use Arc, open app.aero.xyz. Do not connect to other sites that claim to handle a migration.

XyloNet is an app that started on Arc. Besides swaps, it offers a bridge that moves USDC from other chains to Arc, and "PayX," which sends USDC to X accounts. The mainnet site has no entry point for points, and we could not find a published audit report.

Synthra is live as well. Three of its features run on Arc: swaps, liquidity provision and a launchpad. According to its official documentation, the perpetual futures shown in its interface are executed on Hyperliquid. Its deposits are small, at about $50,000 (per DefiLlama).

Neither Synthra's official documentation nor its website mentions a native token. If you come across a token calling itself SYN on Arc, there is no basis for treating it as official.

On OpenSea, Arc NFT collections are being traded. The commemorative collection "Arc x OpenSea: The Arc Begins" has finished minting after about 540,000 items were given away for free, and listings are priced at a few cents or less.

Deposits: Morpho and Aave | Yields Are Still Almost 0%

Morpho vaults hold about $150 million in total. Borrowing, by contrast, is only about $1.4 million, and utilization in the largest market is under 1%. Funds that are not lent out earn no interest, so the displayed yield on the large vaults curated by Galaxy and Keyrock remains around 0%.

For Aave, the entry point is Aave Pro rather than the usual app.aave.com. Borrowing is negligible against about $77 million in deposits, so the yield here is effectively 0% as well.

Image: The Arc hub on Aave Pro. Figures are from launch day (captured September 16, 2026)

Before depositing, check the APY field on the screen for each vault or market.

Futures and FX: edgeX and Hibachi

edgeX has started accepting Arc accounts on its Arc page, which shows deposit, withdrawal and balance panels. At the top of the page, it promotes "edgeX Arc Genesis," a rewards campaign covering sign-ups, deposits and trading.

On the other hand, Arc has not been added to the networks that existing edgeX accounts can use for deposits and withdrawals.

Hibachi has announced plans to build an FX exchange dedicated to Arc, but it has not launched yet. What you can use now is its existing exchange, which has added Arc as a USDC deposit and withdrawal network and runs markets such as JPY/USDT-P, which trades moves in the yen.

Hibachi's terms prohibit use by residents of the United States and the United Kingdom, and by residents of the restricted regions the terms define. Japan is not named.

Not Usable Yet: Maple and Tower Exchange

Maple's official documentation lists an Arc address for syrupUSDC, and its supply is growing. However, Arc cannot be selected in the Maple app, and no steps for individuals to obtain it have been published.

syrupUSDC is a token that earns yield from institutional lending. Maple's documentation states that it has no formal relationship with Circle and that it is not a token backed by USDC.

Tower Exchange has halted swaps, citing maintenance. Its network display has also reverted to testnet. The screen says swaps are "temporarily paused," but it gives no date for resumption.

Image: Tower Exchange (captured September 17, 2026)

No route for sending USDC directly from a Japanese exchange to Arc has been announced. The practical route is to withdraw USDC bought on SBI VC Trade over Ethereum, then move it to Arc with Circle's official USDC Bridge.

Image: USDC Bridge (captured September 16, 2026)

1. Open an account with SBI VC Trade and buy USDC with Japanese yen. The spread on its dealer service has been reported at about 0.352%.
2. Register the address of a self-custody wallet such as MetaMask as the withdrawal destination, and withdraw the USDC over Ethereum. Withdrawals are free, with a limit of ¥1 million equivalent per withdrawal.
3. The next step requires signing on Ethereum, so also withdraw a small amount of ETH for gas.
4. On USDC Bridge, connect your wallet and select Ethereum as the source and Arc as the destination.
5. Receipt on the Arc side is handled by Circle's forwarding service.

There are three fees. Circle's CCTP, which the bridge uses, is free for Standard transfers, while Fast transfers from Ethereum cost 0.01% of the amount sent. The fee for the forwarding service on the Arc side is deducted from the USDC that arrives. USDC Bridge's terms also state that Circle may charge a separate bridge fee, so check the actual amount on screen before you send.

If you add Arc to your wallet manually, use the chain ID (5042) and RPC values listed in Arc's official documentation. Do not use unofficial endpoints circulated on Telegram or social media.

A wallet appearing in the official blog's list of supported wallets does not guarantee that you can select Arc in it. Check first whether Arc shows up in the wallet you use.

Circle has also released "Arc Portal" (portal.arc.io), which brings card deposits, swaps and more together on one screen. However, the official site says only that "Availability may vary by jurisdiction and eligibility," and does not indicate whether it can be used from Japan.

Kraken and Upbit, which Circle lists as supporting exchanges, are not available to residents of Japan. Kraken designates Japan as a restricted region, and Upbit is not registered in Japan.

We could not confirm that any yen-denominated stablecoin is usable on Arc. Circle lists JPYC among the currencies for StableFX, its service for exchanging one stablecoin for another, but describes them as "active or onboarding" without saying which applies. StableFX itself is available only to institutions that have passed screening.

→ Move USDC to Arc with USDC Bridge

The ARC token was minted on September 16, but it is not on the market, and no timing, eligibility or conditions for distributing it to users have been announced. Nothing in the official announcements supports calling an airdrop "confirmed."

Circle writes that this initial mint "is not a commitment to publicly launch ARC," describing it instead as a technical milestone for exploring a transition in the network's consensus mechanism in 2027.

The whitepaper says most ARC will be distributed to participants who build on, use and contribute to the network. However, the means it lists include token sales and developer grants, and it mentions neither the word "airdrop" nor any conditions for receiving tokens. It also says the allocation and reward design is provisional and may not be implemented.

The Architects contributor program on the community site Arc House has points. However, its terms disclaim, in Section 22, any promise of token distribution through points or any expectation of receiving tokens, and state, in Section 8, that points have no cash value.

The points come from the individual apps. Hibachi continues its points program, "The Playoffs," on its current exchange, and launchpads such as Tolly Labs and ArcPad also issue their own points. None of these guarantees that a token will be distributed in the future.

On Arc, unrelated tokens using the USDC and Circle names rank near the top by trading volume. A ticker cannot tell you whether a token is genuine; the only way to check is by its contract address.

Launchpads Let Anyone Issue a Token

Arc's launchpads are services where anyone can issue a token and trade it against USDC. On Tolly Labs, the most active of them, about 21,000 wallets have traded about $26 million in total since launch.

Image: The token list on Tolly Labs (captured September 16, 2026)

All of the major launchpads are run by anonymous operators, and none is listed on Arc's official ecosystem page. Tolly Labs and ArcPad publish their contract addresses but have not published third-party audit reports. As of September 16, ArcPad itself stated that it is unaudited. In both cases, admin privileges are held by a single wallet.

Some launchpads are designed to lock liquidity when a token is issued. Even so, the issuer and early buyers can still sell. A liquidity lock is not a mechanism that prevents the price from falling.

Warp (circlewarp), a launchpad with "circle" in its name, does not appear in Circle's announcements either.

How to Spot Fakes

The genuine addresses are below. For any other token, check it against the contract address the project has published on its official site or official X account.

• USDC: 0x3600000000000000000000000000000000000000
• EURC: 0xbEf5f6d51CB62b58e6A8f77868681825C6fe21c1

→ See the companies listed on Arc's official ecosystem page

From launch, individuals can use Arc to bring in USDC, swap, deposit and trade futures. Deposit yields, however, are still almost 0%, and Maple and Tower Exchange cannot be used. No timing or conditions have been announced for distributing the ARC token, so check any airdrop pitch or same-named token against its address and the official site before deciding anything.

Sources

1. Arc official blog: Mainnet launch (2026)
2. Arc official press release (2026)
3. Arc official docs: Connection details (2026)
4. Uniswap: Arc token list (2026)
5. Synthra official docs (2026)
6. DefiLlama: Arc data (2026)
7. OpenSea: The Arc Begins (2026)
8. Hibachi: Plans for an FX venue on Arc (2026)
9. Hibachi: Terms of Service (2024)
10. Aero official site: Aero Lite announcement (2026)
11. Maple official docs (2026)
12. SBI VC Trade: USDC support (2026)
13. Circle: CCTP fees (2026)
14. Circle: USDC Bridge Terms (2026)
15. Kraken: Geographic restrictions (2026)
16. Circle: StableFX (2026)
17. Circle: ARC token whitepaper (2026)
18. Arc House: Architects Terms and Conditions (2026)
19. Tolly Labs: Trading analytics (2026)
20. ArcPad official docs (2026)