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- Circle raises $222 million as Arc blockchain targets institutional finance expansion.
- Arc blockchain strengthens Circle’s control over growing USDC payment infrastructure operations.
- Circle introduces AI payment tools alongside major institutional blockchain fundraising announcement.
Circle has since been caught up in a battle with other institutions for the title of the top crypto infrastructure, after it raised $222 million for its new Arc blockchain network, which was valued at fully diluted at $3 billion. The fundraising also put Circle in the first spot of a publicly traded company to raise funds for a token presale that is linked to a Layer 1 network’s launch.
Circle announced the development in conjunction with its first quarter 2026 results when it reported growth in a number of businesses tied to USDC activity. Furthermore, the company seems to be intent on lessening its reliance on external blockchain networks by creating settlement infrastructure under its control. The investment round was led by a16z crypto with $75 million, according to CNBC. Other institutional investors in the institutional syndicate around Arc include BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, ARK Invest and others.
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The first quarter revenue and reserve income rose 20% from the previous year to $694 million, Circle said. Other than that, $77 billion of USDC circulates to the end of March, expanding by 28%. Transaction volume onchain for USDC also picked up significantly in the quarter. Circle showed that transaction volume grew 263 percent compared to the year before and amounted to $21.5 trillion. Adjusted EBITDA rose 24% to $151 million as operating expenses were up due to the post-IPO compensation costs.
Arc Expands Circle’s Control Over USDC Infrastructure
Arc is an institutional finance-focused public blockchain. It is used as the native gas token in the network, EVM compatible, finalizes transactions in sub-seconds and offers optional privacy. The settlement activity on USDC is highly dependent on the Ethereum and Solana networks. But Arc might enable Circle to have greater influence over more infrastructure directly related to the stablecoins and institutional blockchain services.
Circle will dedicate 60% of the Arc token supply, which totals 10 billion tokens, to developers, contributors, and network participants. At the same time, the company kept 25% as validator infrastructure and staking operations, with the remaining 15% to be held in long-term reserves. The company has been secretly readying itself for Arc roll out since 2025. Circle intends to release the public testnet in October 2025, with more than 100 institutional backers such as BlackRock, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Anthropic, and AWS participating. The testnet has reached over 166 million transactions by February 2026, boasting almost 100% uptime.
Circle Agent Stack Targets AI-Driven Payment Activity
In addition, the Arc release also came with the announcement of a new feature called Circle Agent Stack. The platform also has a suite of AI-driven payment & wallet solutions to enable autonomous agent transactions with USDC. The suite features Circle CLI, Agent Wallets, Agent Marketplace, and Nanopayments infrastructure for automated digital transactions, according to Circle. Moreover, Circle Gateway allows for gas-free transfers of USDC for micro-transactions of just $0.000001.
Jeremy Allaire said AI and autonomous agents may be bigger players in the upcoming digital economic activities. As a result, Circle seems geared toward building USDC infrastructure for new AI-driven financial solutions. The latest round of funding by Circle was part of a broader plan, which goes beyond stablecoin issuance, toward control of the blockchain infrastructure. As such, Arc has the potential to further bolster Circle’s position as institutional competition in the regulated digital asset market keeps gaining momentum.
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