Circle Raises $222 Million in Arc Token Presale
CNBC reported Monday that Circle Internet Group has closed a $222 million token presale for Arc, its newly announced institutional blockchain network. The raise assigns Arc a fully diluted network valuation of $3 billion.
Wall Street Lines Up Behind Arc
Andreessen Horowitz anchored the round with a $75 million commitment, taking the lead investor role. The remaining capital came from roughly a dozen institutional names. BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, Standard Chartered Ventures, Janus Henderson Investors, ARK Invest, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, SBI Group, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures and exchange operator Bullish all participated.
The breadth of the investor list signals growing appetite among traditional financial firms for blockchain infrastructure plays, rather than purely speculative crypto exposure.
Circle Moves Past Its Stablecoin Origins
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC the company views Arc as a move into operating-system territory. He compared blockchain infrastructure to mobile platforms and cloud services, describing ambitions for a multi-stakeholder network where major institutions help run and govern the underlying rails.
Allaire framed the shift as part of a broader evolution. Circle, best known for issuing the USDC stablecoin, is repositioning itself as an internet platform company. Arc is designed specifically for institutional finance and, according to Allaire, is built to handle the full complexity of economic activity — not just payments and value transfer.
Circle will hold 25% of Arc’s initial ten-billion token supply, enabling it to operate validator infrastructure and earn staking and fee revenue. A 60% majority of tokens is earmarked for developers, users and contributors building on the network. The remaining 15% goes to a long-term reserve.
Background: Competitive Pressure on Crypto Incumbents
Circle went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2025. Its core USDC business has been highly profitable but faces increasing competition from rival stablecoin issuers and from traditional payment providers entering the space.
Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm noted in a blog post published alongside the announcement that USDC’s current internet infrastructure was built for retail crypto users, not large financial institutions. Arc is positioned to address that gap directly.
Allaire also pointed to artificial intelligence as a growth driver. He argued that AI agents will increasingly handle transactional and contractual work now performed by humans, and Circle separately unveiled a developer toolkit to help builders create AI agents capable of managing payments via USDC.
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