Key Takeaways:
Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, raised $222 million in a presale for its new public blockchain, Arc, giving the network a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. The funding round signals Circle’s ambition to build infrastructure for institutional finance that extends far beyond its core stablecoin business.
"We're entering this era where software machines will power the economic system," Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC, framing Arc as a response to the rise of AI-driven economic activity. "We're becoming a broader internet platform company. We're entering the operating system business."
The presale was led by a $75 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with significant participation from institutional heavyweights including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, and Standard Chartered Ventures. Crypto-native firms like Bullish, ARK Invest, and Haun Ventures also joined the round, showing a broad base of support from both traditional finance and digital asset specialists.
The move marks Circle's most significant expansion beyond payments, positioning Arc as a competitor to other smart contract platforms like Ethereum and Solana, but with a specific focus on regulated financial activity. The Arc whitepaper describes the native ARC token as a “native coordination asset” for governance, validator security, and network operations, similar to the role of ETH on Ethereum.
The ARC token will have a fixed initial supply of 10 billion. According to the company, 60 percent is allocated to the ecosystem for developers and grants, 25 percent is reserved for Circle to support development and governance, and the final 15 percent is set aside as a long-term reserve for market stability.
The announcement came as Circle reported its first-quarter financial results. The company posted revenue of $694 million, a 20 percent increase year-over-year, though it missed analyst estimates of $715 million. Net income fell 15 percent to $55 million, which the company attributed to higher operating expenses, including stock-based compensation. Onchain transaction volume for USDC grew 263 percent to $21.5 trillion, and the stablecoin's circulation increased 28 percent to $77 billion.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
