Circle and Stripe are developing their own blockchains to enhance control over settlement rails, reduce costs, and ensure compliance in digital asset payments. This move is part of a broader trend among firms to create proprietary chains for stablecoins and tokenized assets. The shift toward custom blockchains allows companies to have more predictable fees, embed compliance directly, and avoid dependencies on public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, which can expose them to external fee fluctuations and governance issues. Analysts believe that while these new chains offer competition to existing layer-one networks, Ethereum's established user base remains secure in the short term. Entrants like Circle's Arc and Stripe's Tempo are focusing on high-throughput, low-fee systems, potentially impacting networks such as Solana, though significant adoption may take years as new players must build trust to attract users from incumbent infrastructures. The revenue potential from owning settlement layers could be considerably higher than traditional payment processing margins, further driving firms toward custom blockchain solutions.

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