Circle raised $222M for its Arc institutional blockchain at a $3B valuation alongside strong USDC growth results.
Crypto News
Circle Internet Group has raised $222 million in a token presale for Arc, its new institutional layer-1 blockchain, at a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. The raise makes Circle the first publicly listed company to conduct a token presale. The announcement was made on May 11 alongside the company's Q1 2026 financial results.
Andreessen Horowitz led the round with a $75 million commitment. BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, Ark Invest, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, and Bullish completed the investor syndicate, which totaled roughly a dozen participants.
What Arc Is Built To Do
Arc is a public blockchain designed for institutional finance. It uses USDC (USDC) as its native gas token and features sub-second finality, opt-in privacy through a modular system using zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation, and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), alongside full EVM compatibility. Circle has confirmed Arc will be quantum-resistant at mainnet launch, with a post-quantum signature scheme for optional quantum-resistant wallets. The company described this as a baseline requirement for institutional adoption.
The Arc public testnet launched in October 2025 with more than 100 institutional participants, including BlackRock, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Anthropic, and AWS. By February 2026, the testnet had processed more than 166 million transactions at half-second finality. Circle published the Arc whitepaper on May 11, outlining how a native coordination asset could support governance, security, and network operations on the network.
Of Arc's 10 billion token supply, 60% is allocated to participants who build on and use the network. Circle retains 25%, enabling it to operate validator infrastructure and earn staking income. The remaining 15% is held in long-term reserve. Circle has also opened applications for a developer funding program to support early ecosystem growth.
Q1 Results and the USDC Expansion
The Q1 2026 results released alongside the Arc announcement showed total revenue and reserve income of $694 million, up 20% year-over-year. USDC in circulation grew 28% to $77 billion at quarter's end. On-chain USDC transaction volume reached $21.5 trillion for the quarter, a 263% increase from the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 24% to $151 million. Net income from continuing operations fell 15% to $55 million, as operating expenses surged 76%, driven primarily by post-IPO stock-based compensation and related payroll taxes. Circle's Payments Network generated $8.3 billion in annualized transaction volume as of March 31, 2026.
CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company is moving beyond its origins as a stablecoin issuer. "We're becoming a broader internet platform company," Allaire told CNBC, comparing blockchain infrastructure to mobile operating systems or cloud platforms. He described Arc as an operating system built with many stakeholders, including major companies that run infrastructure and help govern the network. "Every company in the world, over time, will be tokenized," Allaire said.
Circle Agent Stack
Circle simultaneously launched the Circle Agent Stack, a suite of tools for autonomous AI agents. The stack includes Circle CLI, Agent Wallets, an Agent Marketplace, and Nanopayments powered by Circle Gateway, which enables gas-free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001. "The next phase of the global economy will be increasingly AI and agent-driven," Allaire said. Circle shares were trading at $113.67, up 0.4%, during pre-market hours on May 11.
