Arc Mainnet, AI Agents, and Tokenized Markets | Nikhil Chandhok, CTO of Circle

Circle’s CTO Nikhil Chandhok joined Bankless on the day of Arc Mainnet’s launch to explain what the new layer-1 blockchain is designed to do, how it differs from existing chains, and why the team is betting on AI agents, tokenized fiat currencies, and a full-stack approach to financial infrastructure. The conversation covers Arc’s technical properties, its relationship with immutability, the role of trusted execution environments for privacy, and the specific primitives Circle is building to support a new class of economic actors.

What Arc Is — and What It Isn’t

Arc is a layer-1 blockchain built by Circle, the company behind USDC. Its headline features include sub-second settlement finality, transaction fees paid in USDC (no native token required), and a permissioned validator set combined with permissionless contract deployment. The gas-in-stablecoins design is not a minor convenience: for institutions and companies that hold treasuries or transact in real-world assets, accounting for a volatile native token is a genuine operational headache. Arc removes that friction entirely.