cointelegraph.com
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group plans to focus on building more durable infrastructure throughout 2026 to spur greater adoption among companies and institutions.
Circle chief product and technology officer Nikhil Chandhok said in a blog post on Thursday that the company is aiming to push Arc, its layer-1 blockchain designed for institutional and large-scale use, from testnet toward production.
At the same time, Circle plans to focus on deepening the utility and reach of its tokens, $USDC ($USDC), EURC, USYC, and its partner-launched stablecoins by expanding to more chains.
“That means deepening native support on high-impact networks, tightening integration with Arc, and making it easier for institutional users to hold, move, and program with these assets as part of their everyday operations,” Chandhok said.
Stablecoins were one of the hottest crypto topics in 2025 as the US passed laws to regulate the tokens, and institutions and banks eyed launching their own stablecoins.
More institutional adoption for stablecoins
Circle added that it would also look to scale its applications, such as its payments network, so institutions can adopt stablecoin payments “rather than building and operating the underlying infrastructure themselves.”
The stablecoin giant will also continue investing in developing its stablecoin $USDC seamlessly across chains, improving user experience by streamlining “chain complexities” and creating better developer tools, Chandhok said.
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“In addition, we will continue to expand our partner and developer ecosystem to build utility and extend global scale and reach to bring the benefits of stablecoin and internet-scale finance to more markets and use cases,” he added.
$USDC has the second-largest share of market cap
$USDC has the second-largest share of the stablecoin market capitalization among US dollar-pegged stablecoins, with over $70 billion, according to DeFi data aggregator DefiLlama. USDt (USDT) is the largest, accounting for over $186 billion of the total market cap of $306 billion.
The stablecoin sector surpassed $300 billion in market capitalization for the first time in October last year, driven mainly by USDt, $USDC, and Ethena Labs’ yield-bearing stablecoin, USDe.
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