circle internet group CNBC reported that the company aims to expand beyond its core business of issuing USDC stablecoins and has raised $222 million in a pre-sale for Arc, the new blockchain’s native token.
Andreessen Horowitz was the lead investor, investing $75 million. Other investors include: black rockApollo Funds, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange intercontinental exchangeSBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, ARK Invest, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, owners of crypto exchanges and CoinDesk strong.
The raise brings Arc’s fully diluted network valuation to $3 billion.
“(Blockchain) infrastructure is becoming as important as mobile operating systems and cloud platforms,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC in an exclusive interview. “We want to build an operating system that has a very large number of stakeholders. Major companies that will run the infrastructure with us and ultimately help us manage it.”
“We are becoming a broader Internet platform company,” Allaire added. “We’re in the operating systems business, and we’re doing it by using tokens and decentralized networks to build this multi-stakeholder decentralized model. But this is an operating systems business. And we’re also getting into the app business.”
Arc is a public blockchain designed for institutional finance. Allaire emphasized that it is more than a stablecoin or payment, noting that it can “drive real economies.”
“Economy is not just an expression of value, it’s all the contracts that underpin those financial relationships… It’s the governance system that we use to govern all these economic institutions,” Allaire said.
As a 25% stakeholder in Arc’s initial supply of 10 billion tokens, Circle will be able to participate in the operation of the validator infrastructure, generate new fee income, and earn staking income. The majority of tokens (60%) will go to participants who build, use, and contribute on top of the Arc network. The remaining 15% will be allocated to long-term reserves.
Allaire said investors should follow the deals, asset issuances and successes found on the network by the developer community.
He added that the economy is increasingly run by machines, with AI agents handling many of the operational and contracting tasks currently managed by humans.
“We are entering an era where software machines drive economic systems,” he said. “The software does most of the work. That’s the AI agent.”
The company also announced a suite of services and tools designed to help developers build AI agents that can manage transactions, access online services, and make payments using USDC.
Positioning for a more competitive market
Circle’s ambitions for Arc reflect the existential shift facing other crypto companies. They need to evolve beyond the businesses built in the early days of crypto around crypto speculation cycles towards more durable businesses with more stable and more diversified returns.
“USDC has become a trusted digital dollar for banks, businesses, and financial institutions;
Problems remain for financial institutions seeking speed without the volatility of cryptocurrencies. The Internet infrastructure currently operated by USDC was not built with large organizations in mind. Built for individuals and cryptocurrency enthusiasts. That’s where Arc comes in,” a16z Crypto wrote in a blog post Monday morning.
If Arc is successful, Circle could gain greater ownership of the infrastructure on which its flagship USDC stablecoin runs. Currently, USDC relies heavily on payment and distribution partners such as Ethereum and Solana. coinbase.
This initiative focuses on defense as well as development. While pro-stablecoin regulations have legalized stablecoins, such as the GENIUS Act passed last year and the CLARITY Act, which is scheduled for a first vote in the Senate Banking Committee this week, some investors are concerned that banks and fintechs could issue their own competing dollar tokens, eliminating the need for third-party issuers.
On-chain financing
Circle is the first publicly traded company to conduct a token presale, an early sale of digital tokens before a blockchain project officially launches.
Cryptocurrency companies love token sales because they allow them to raise large amounts of capital and build an initial community of users. Both represent public financing mechanisms that result in transferable financial returns, and are often compared to an IPO.
Token sales, also known as “Initial Coin Offerings” (ICOs), became infamous for their role in driving the crypto peak in 2017. At the time, the market grew so rapidly that projects were launched with little oversight, leading to several high-profile failures and frauds.
The landscape has changed significantly since then. Under the Trump administration’s more crypto-friendly regulatory stance, the Securities and Exchange Commission is increasingly focused on establishing a framework for compliant tokenized securities and on-chain capital formation, creating conditions that may facilitate the resurgence of ICO-style financing in more mature and sustainable structures.
“This is a major change in how stakeholders can participate in the growth of the network,” Allaire said. “Over time, every company in the world will be tokenized. That means your stock will be a token… (and) you’ll be using digital tokens as a mechanism for engagement with customers and stakeholders.”
