Circle Raises $222M for Arc Presale, Values Chain at $3B

Circle Internet Group raised $222 million in a presale for Arc’s native token, valuing the USDC-focused Layer-1 blockchain at $3 billion on a fully diluted basis. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with a $75 million commitment; asset managers BlackRock and Apollo were among other participants. Circle published the Arc whitepaper on the day it announced the presale.

Arc is a blockchain built by Circle to support stablecoin-based applications at institutional scale. Circle describes Arc as a specialized layer-1 platform intended for firms and regulated use cases that rely on USDC rather than a general-purpose chain.

The whitepaper and company statements outline technical features that include a modular privacy system using zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation and Trusted Execution Environments. Circle says those components are designed to balance compliance requirements with confidentiality needs for enterprise users. The paper also presents a roadmap to move Arc to a proof-of-stake consensus and explains how a native token could coordinate governance and network operations.

Circle set Arc’s initial supply at 10 billion tokens. Under the announced allocation, Circle will retain 25% of the supply, 60% will be distributed to participants who build on and use the chain, and 15% will be held in a long-term reserve. The company has opened applications for a developer funding program to support ecosystem growth.

The presale and the whitepaper were released alongside Circle’s first-quarter financial results. The company reported USDC circulation increased 28% in the quarter to $77 billion and on-chain transaction volume for USDC rose 263% to $21.5 trillion.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive, described the company as “becoming a broader internet platform company.” He added that Circle aims to build an operating system with many stakeholders, including major firms that run infrastructure and help govern the network, and said he expects corporate shares will be tokenized over time, with digital tokens used to engage customers and stakeholders.

Circle said it is among the first publicly listed companies to conduct a token presale of this kind and presented the sale as an experiment in combining token fundraising with traditional capital markets and governance structures. The company plans to use the token allocation to incentivize builders and users while keeping a portion for long-term network support. Applications for the developer funding program are open.