Arbitrum joined the Global Dollar Network (GDN), a stablecoin consortium led by Paxos, coinciding with the launch of USDG on the Layer 2 this week.
USDG integrated across key Arbitrum DeFi protocols including Fluid, Morpho, GMX, Maple and Li.Fi. Gauntlet, Steakhouse, LayerZero and Kraken support USDG, with Uniswap and Fhenix expected to follow.
USDG is issued by Paxos and backed one-to-one by dollar reserves. The stablecoin has more than $3 billion in circulation across various networks.
The GDN comprises over 150 partners, including Robinhood, Kraken and Mastercard. Rather than centralizing all revenue with Paxos, the model distributes rewards generated from USDG reserves among partners who drive adoption.
Approximately $3.8 billion in stablecoins currently circulate on Arbitrum, with Circle's USDC accounting for about 60 percent. Arbitrum receives no direct revenue from reserve income generated by existing tokens.
A governance proposal published this week asks ArbitrumDAO to allocate 100 million ARB tokens to its DRIP incentive program, which currently holds 63.7 million ARB unspent. The proposal also seeks treasury support for USDG liquidity and positions USDG growth as a strategic priority.
Brendan Ma, head of investment strategy at the Arbitrum Foundation, said: "With USDG, Arbitrum and developers across the platform now have a stake in the growth potential."
The push reflects a broader competition for dollar-flow dominance. Open Standard, backed by Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, Coinbase and Shopify, is building around OpenUSD. In Europe, Qivalis has support from 37 banks. These initiatives distribute stablecoin issuance, distribution and economics across wider partner networks.
Arbitrum's technology also underlies Robinhood Chain, the brokerage's planned Ethereum-based network. Robinhood has agreed to share a portion of user activity revenue with Arbitrum and uses USDG as settlement currency.
