Circle Raises $222 Million in Arc Token Presale, Values Blockchain at $3 Billion

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, raised $222 million through a presale of the native token for its new blockchain network, Arc.

CNBC reported May 11 that the funding valued Arc, a new public blockchain, at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation.

Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, led the round with a $75 million investment. Other participants included BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, SBI Group, Standard Chartered Ventures and ARK Invest.

Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Allaire told CNBC that blockchain infrastructure is becoming as important as mobile operating systems and cloud platforms. He said Circle wants to build a blockchain operating system with participation from multiple stakeholders.

Arc is designed as a public blockchain for institutional finance. Allaire said it is intended to serve as infrastructure for running real economic systems, beyond a simple stablecoin or payments network.

Circle will hold 25% of Arc's total supply of 10 billion tokens, enabling it to operate validator infrastructure and earn staking rewards. Another 60% of the supply will be allocated to network contributors and developers, while the remaining 15% will be reserved for the long term.

Allaire also emphasized the potential expansion of AI agent-based economic systems. He said the industry is entering an era in which software runs much of the economy and AI agents handle a significant share of transactions and contract work.

Circle also unveiled USDC-based tools and services to help developers build AI agent-based payments and online service functions.

The Arc launch is also being viewed as part of Circle's business diversification strategy. USDC currently relies on external blockchain networks such as Ethereum and Solana. If Arc succeeds, Circle could tighten control over its ecosystem through its own infrastructure.