Official Arc domains vs known fakes: a verification guide
The Meme Central Editor·9 min read·Updated 16 Sept 2026
The Arc chain official website is arc.io. Here is every verified Circle Arc domain, the confirmed fakes and drainers, and how to check one yourself.
Circle's verified Arc properties are arc.io, arc.network, docs.arc.io, rpc.mainnet.arc.io, explorer.arc.io, rpc.testnet.arc.io, explorer.testnet.arc.io, testnet.arcscan.app, faucet.circle.com and community.arc.io. Circle has published no phishing advisory of its own. At least one confirmed wallet drainer and several unverified Arc-branded domains are live, and this page names all of them without linking any.
Nothing on this page is a hyperlink to an Arc domain, official or otherwise. That is deliberate. Copying a domain from a page and typing it yourself is a habit worth building, and a link you click is a link you did not read. Everything below is plain text.
The verified official domains
Checked 16 September 2026.
| Domain | What it is | How it checks out |
|---|---|---|
arc.io | Arc's primary site | Circle property |
arc.network | Arc's alternate apex | Same apex IP as arc.io — both are Circle |
docs.arc.io | Technical documentation | The authoritative source for chain parameters |
rpc.testnet.arc.io | Public testnet RPC endpoint | Published in Circle's docs |
testnet.arcscan.app | Testnet block explorer | CNAME to arc-testnet.cname.blockscout.com — a genuine Blockscout deployment |
rpc.mainnet.arc.io | Public mainnet RPC endpoint | Published in Circle's docs, 16 Sep 2026 |
explorer.arc.io | Mainnet block explorer | Published in Circle's docs, 16 Sep 2026 |
explorer.testnet.arc.io | Testnet block explorer (Circle's docs list this alongside testnet.arcscan.app) | Published in Circle's docs |
faucet.circle.com | Testnet faucet | On Circle's own corporate domain |
community.arc.io | Community forum | Circle subdomain |
circle.com | Circle's corporate site | The parent company |
If a resource claiming to be part of Arc does not sit on one of those, it is not Circle's, regardless of how the page looks.
The arcscan.app caveat, which matters more than it sounds
As of 16 September 2026, the apex domain arcscan.app has no A record. Only the testnet. subdomain resolves.
So the accurate statement is "testnet.arcscan.app is the official testnet explorer," at the subdomain level. Circle's mainnet explorer is explorer.arc.io, not the bare arcscan.app domain. Until the apex resolves and Circle's documentation points at it, do not go to the bare domain — a non-resolving apex on a heavily searched brand is exactly the kind of gap someone else registers a lookalike against.
Domains to avoid, or to treat with caution
Every entry below is written as plain text. None is linked. Read the "why" column before you dismiss any of them as obvious.
| Domain | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
governance-arc[.]com | Confirmed wallet drainer | Documented by PCrisk as the "Arc Community Rewards" scam. Clones Arc's design, shows a fake governance proposal, and a "Vote Now" button opens a wallet connector supporting 27+ wallets that drains on connect. Spread via compromised social accounts and paid ads |
arc-scan.io | Highest concern | Registered through Njalla, an anonymity-shield registrar. Currently no A record — indexed but not resolving. Google's index still holds pages from it titled around a "mainnet API" and a chain ID that does not match Circle's published 5042. Anonymous registration plus dormant DNS plus a fabricated mainnet chain ID is a bad combination |
arc-scan.org | Unofficial, transparent, still risky | It states openly that it is "not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Circle," which is more honesty than most. But it prompts visitors to "Add RPC to Wallet" pointing at its own RPC endpoint, and asserts a mainnet chain ID that does not match Circle's published 5042. Adding a third-party RPC from an unaffiliated site is a genuine risk vector |
arcswap.vip | Unverified, suspicious profile | Resolves to Netlify. Arc has no DEX by that name in any Circle material. A .vip TLD on free hosting is a common low-cost scam profile |
arcpump.fun | Squatted, no standing | Resolves via Namecheap. Announced by nobody. A memecoin-adjacent Arc name registered by someone unknown |
arclaunch.fun | Landing page, no product | The subject of a single press release syndicated across a ring of PR-farm domains on 13 August 2026. Resolves behind Cloudflare with a title and an image but no rendered application. No team beyond a contact named "Jimmy Woo," no funding, no audit, no contract, no token, and no Circle acknowledgment anywhere. The name is separately registered across .io, .com and .app on different hosts |
arc-swap.io | Does not resolve | Registered or parked; nothing served as of 16 September 2026 |
On arc-scan.org specifically: transparency about affiliation does not make an RPC endpoint safe. A malicious or merely careless RPC provider sees every request your wallet makes, can serve you stale or wrong chain state, and can present a transaction differently from what will actually execute. Get RPC endpoints from docs.arc.io and nowhere else.
The chain ID confusion, which is its own attack surface
Two separate wrong numbers are circulating, and both will put you on the wrong network.
Circle published the mainnet chain ID on 16 September 2026: 5042, hex 0x13b2. The testnet chain ID is 5042002. Verify both against docs.arc.io, and add a network from nowhere else.
The second wrong number is 1243. ChainList and several RPC aggregators list chain ID 1243 as "ARC Mainnet" with a native currency called ARC. That is Archie Chain, an entirely unrelated project with its own site. At least one tutorial platform propagates the confusion and currently ranks for Circle Arc wallet queries. If you configure 1243 expecting Circle's Arc, you will be on a different chain — and any assets you send there are on a different chain too.
Note also that Circle's Arc does not use ARC for gas. Gas on Arc is USDC. A network entry listing ARC as the native currency is, on that basis alone, not Circle's Arc.
Bridge phishing: reported, unresolved
On 31 July 2026, Bitcoin World reported users losing USDC to fake versions of Arc's bridging interface, spread through search ads and phishing links. We are flagging this as a single-source report we could not independently verify: no specific domains were named, no amounts were disclosed, and the article states that Circle "has not yet issued an official statement addressing the reports."
Treat it as a live warning rather than a documented incident. Bridge interfaces are among the most impersonated properties in crypto generally, for the obvious reason that people arrive at them intending to move large balances. The pattern is covered in phishing sites that mimic explorers, bridges and DEXs.
How to verify an Arc domain yourself
Four checks, in order of how much they tell you.
Start from documentation, not from search. Type docs.arc.io directly. Every endpoint, chain parameter and official resource should be reachable from there. Search results and paid ads are the delivery mechanism for most of what is on the list above — the drainer spreads via ads, and the fake launchpad ranks on syndication volume alone.
Check the WHOIS and the DNS. An anonymity-shield registrar on a piece of supposedly official infrastructure is a strong negative signal. So is a domain that is indexed but does not resolve — that pattern means content once existed and the operator took it down, which is what happens after a campaign ends or a host acts.
Never add an RPC endpoint offered by a site. Get it from the documentation and type it. A wallet connected to a hostile RPC can be shown a false view of the chain.
Assume anything asking you to connect a wallet to claim, vote or verify is hostile. There is no ARC token to claim, no public presale and no confirmed airdrop — the ARC token and what Circle has confirmed sets out the disclaimers in Circle's own words. That makes the rule unusually clean here: any claim page is a lie about something.
If you have already connected to something you now doubt, review and revoke approvals immediately. The mechanics are in how to revoke token approvals, and a drainer that has an approval does not need you to visit the site again.
What this list does not tell you
It is a snapshot dated 16 September 2026, and the fake side of it will be out of date faster than the real side. Domains rotate; the ones here will be joined by others, particularly in the fortnight around the 16 September mainnet launch, when search volume spikes and impersonators follow it. Absence from this table is not a clearance.
It also does not tell you that the official domains are safe to transact on carelessly. A genuine Circle domain protects you from impersonation. It does nothing about a malicious token contract you interact with afterwards — that is a different failure mode, covered in checking you have the right contract.
We maintain this page on a monthly cycle and specifically around the mainnet date. For Arc coverage beyond the memecoin-adjacent slice — validators, stablecoin rails, the enterprise side — Radian's chain desk goes wider. For what Arc actually is, Circle's L1 explained for traders is the starting point here.
Frequently asked questions
What is the official Arc website?
arc.io, with arc.network resolving to the same Circle apex. Documentation lives at docs.arc.io, the community forum at community.arc.io, and the testnet faucet at faucet.circle.com. Anything Arc-branded that is not on one of those domains is not operated by Circle, however closely it copies the design.
What is the official Arc block explorer?
explorer.arc.io for mainnet; testnet.arcscan.app (a genuine Blockscout deployment, also reachable as explorer.testnet.arc.io) for testnet. Note that the bare arcscan.app apex had no A record as of 16 September 2026 — only the testnet subdomain resolves.
Is arc-scan.org the official Arc explorer?
No. It states itself that it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Circle. It also prompts visitors to add its own RPC endpoint to their wallet and asserts figures that do not match Circle's published mainnet chain ID, 5042. Use the explorer linked from Circle's documentation instead.
Has Circle published a list of official Arc domains?
Not as of 16 September 2026, which is why this page exists. There is no Circle-published phishing advisory and no official domain-verification page, despite reported phishing against Arc's bridging interface in July 2026. Verify endpoints against docs.arc.io directly.
After the domain check comes the token check
Confirming you are on a real site is the first filter, not the last one. Once you are on the right chain looking at a real pool, the question becomes whether the liquidity behind it can be withdrawn — and that is checkable on-chain rather than by inspection. records that commitment on-chain across Ethereum, Robinhood Chain, Polygon, Base and BNB. Arc mainnet support is rolling out; check team.finance's chain list before relying on it. A lock still tells you nothing about tokens the team holds outside the pool.
Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice. Memecoins are extremely high-risk: most lose most of their value, and the majority of tokens launched never reach a decentralised exchange at all. Never spend money you cannot afford to lose entirely. Meme Central does not recommend any specific token. Data described as Meme Central's own reflects tokens indexed by Meme Central and is not whole-market data.
