ZARU Goes Live on Arc: South Africa’s Rand Stablecoin Joins Circle’s Network

What to know

• ZARU, South Africa’s rand-backed stablecoin, has gone live on Arc, a new Layer-1 blockchain built by Circle, becoming a founding currency pair on Circle StableFX.
• The ZARU/USDC pair settles atomically, meaning both sides of a trade complete together or not at all, removing a type of risk common in traditional currency trading.
• This gives institutions a regulated, always-on way to trade rand against dollars on-chain, something the traditional banking system does not offer.

What Happened

ZARU, South Africa’s rand-backed stablecoin, went live on Arc, a new blockchain built by Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin. At the same time, ZARU became one of the founding currency pairs on Circle StableFX, a system built for trading currencies on-chain 24/7.

Vighnesh Patel, CEO of BlockTower, the company that issues ZARU, said the launch provided infrastructure for “Programmable money supported by institutional market makers onchain.”

He also framed the move as extending Rand’s institutional reach. “With ZARU live on Arc Mainnet,” he said, “the Rand now has global institutional reach, backed one-to-one by reserves held onshore in South Africa.”

Circle’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Nikhil Chandhok, welcomed ZARU as “the first African stablecoin on the platform,” bringing “local regulatory oversight and the high standards of the Circle Partner Stablecoins program to institutional markets.”

What Arc Is

Arc is an EVM-compatible, Layer 1 blockchain, built by Circle specifically for stablecoins and financial markets. Circle calls it “an economic operating system for the internet.” Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO, describes it as “the single most significant launch in Circle’s history since USDC itself.”

According to Circle, Arc uses USDC to pay network fees, and transactions are finalised in under a second. It is also described as “the first blockchain designed from genesis for AI agents as economic actors.”

Arc launched with support for 22 currencies, including ZARU, alongside major stablecoins like the AUDD, CADD and EURC.

Trades between ZARU and USDC on Arc settle atomically, meaning both sides of a trade complete together instantly, or neither happens at all.

Who’s Involved

Luno will serve as the main exchange for the ZARU/USDC trading pair. Luno CEO James Lanigan called it part of a bigger push, saying, “Globally compliant liquidity is the foundation of any serious institutional digital asset strategy. ZARU gives institutions a ZAR-denominated settlement that meets the regulatory bar, connected to a global network they already trust.”

He added, “local compliance, global reach – that’s exactly what we’ve been building towards.” His framing accurately describes Luno’s recent activity. Luno recently secured a digital asset licence in Bermuda as part of its wider global expansion.

ZARU is backed by a broader group of South African institutions, not just Luno, including Standard Bank, Sanlam, and EasyEquities. Absa joined the network as a second banking partner earlier this year, adding reserve capacity behind the token.

What’s Next

On the retail end, ZARU has been driving an increase in stablecoin spending in South Africa. This launch could, however, boost institutional use for the rand-backed stablecoin.

Accessing the rand is typically affected by correspondent banking friction and limited trading windows. A launch on ARC, a global on-chain network, could change how Rand liquidity can reach international counterparties.

The ZARU team says this would improve “doing business with South Africa in a compliant manner.” A move which they believe will improve the country’s economic growth and “the critical role the rand plays in global emerging-market foreign-exchange flows.”

For ZARU, the team says the launch is a starting point. It plans to expand ZARU’s reach across Arc, add new payment routes across the rest of Africa, and connect more of South Africa’s economy to global on-chain financial infrastructure over time.