Circle Internet Group has raised $222 million through a presale of Arc, the native token of its new blockchain network, marking a major shift as the company seeks to evolve from a stablecoin issuer into a broader digital infrastructure and financial operating system provider.
According to CNBC, the raise values the Arc network at a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion and positions Circle at the center of an increasingly competitive battle over who will control the infrastructure layer underpinning the next generation of internet finance.
The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, which invested $75 million. Other investors included BlackRock, Apollo Global Management, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered, General Catalyst, ARK Invest, and crypto exchange owner Bullish.
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The investor roster underscores how traditional finance institutions are increasingly positioning themselves around blockchain infrastructure rather than merely speculative cryptocurrency trading.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the initiative as an attempt to build a foundational layer for the digital economy.
“[Blockchain] infrastructure is becoming as important as mobile operating systems or cloud platforms,” Allaire told CNBC. “We want to build an operating system that has many, many stakeholders in it … major companies who are running the infrastructure with us and who ultimately help to govern it.”
“We’re becoming a broader internet platform company,” he added. “We’re entering the operating system business and we’re doing it by building this multi-stakeholder distributed model with a token, with a distributed network. But it is an operating system business. And we’re also getting into the apps business.”
The comments highlight a growing shift across the crypto sector as companies attempt to move away from business models tied heavily to volatile token trading and toward infrastructure, software, and enterprise services capable of generating recurring revenue.
Arc is being positioned as a public blockchain tailored for institutional finance rather than retail crypto speculation. According to Circle, the network is designed to support not just stablecoin transfers and payments, but also broader financial contracts, governance systems, and machine-operated economic activity.
“The economy is not just representations of values, it’s every contract that undergirds those financial relationships … the systems of governance that we use to govern all these economic institutions,” Allaire said.
The company’s ambitions reveal how blockchain firms increasingly view themselves as competitors not just to banks or payment processors, but to cloud infrastructure providers and enterprise software platforms.
Circle’s strategy also reflects a deeper structural challenge facing the stablecoin industry. Although USDC has become one of the world’s largest dollar-backed stablecoins, Circle does not fully control the networks its token depends on.
USDC transactions currently settle largely on third-party blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana, while distribution depends significantly on partnerships with firms such as Coinbase.
Arc would allow Circle to vertically integrate more of the stack underpinning its core stablecoin business. That could give the company greater control over transaction economics, network governance, settlement infrastructure, and fee generation.
As part of the structure, Circle will hold 25% of Arc’s initial supply of 10 billion tokens, allowing it to participate in validator operations, staking revenue, and network fees. Sixty percent of the token supply will go to developers, users, and ecosystem participants, while 15% is reserved for long-term strategic purposes.
The structure mirrors a broader trend in blockchain networks toward decentralized ownership models designed to attract developers and institutional partners simultaneously.
Circle’s move also comes as stablecoins transition from a largely crypto-native tool into mainstream financial infrastructure. Legislative developments in Washington have accelerated that process.
The GENIUS Act, signed into law last year, established a federal framework for stablecoins, while the CLARITY Act is advancing through Congress and could further define how digital assets are regulated in the United States.
Those regulatory shifts have legitimized stablecoins but have also intensified competitive threats. Large banks, fintech firms, and payment companies are increasingly exploring their own dollar-backed digital tokens, raising fears that stablecoin issuance could eventually become commoditized.
Building Arc may therefore be as much a defensive move as an expansion strategy. But owning the infrastructure layer could help Circle protect its position even if the stablecoin market itself becomes crowded.
Industry analysts increasingly compare the blockchain sector’s evolution to the early cloud-computing era.
In that framework, stablecoins resemble internet applications, while blockchain networks function more like the underlying operating systems and infrastructure rails. That analogy helps explain why infrastructure ownership is becoming strategically critical.
Arc also highlights how artificial intelligence is beginning to converge with blockchain technology. Circle unveiled a set of tools designed to help developers build AI agents capable of handling payments, managing transactions, and accessing online financial services using USDC.
Allaire argued that economic systems are becoming increasingly automated.
“We’re entering this era where software machines will power the economic system,” he said. “Software will do most of the work — that is what AI agents represent.”
The idea of autonomous AI agents transacting using stablecoins has become one of the most closely watched themes across the fintech and crypto sectors. Supporters argue that AI-driven software systems will eventually require programmable digital payment rails capable of operating continuously without traditional banking friction. Circle appears to be positioning Arc as infrastructure for that future machine-operated economy.
The token presale itself is also notably part of the company’s push. Circle became the first publicly listed company to conduct a large-scale blockchain token presale, reviving a fundraising structure closely associated with the 2017 cryptocurrency boom.
Initial coin offerings, or ICOs, helped fuel the last major crypto cycle but later became synonymous with speculation, fraud, and regulatory crackdowns after many projects collapsed. But the regulatory environment has shifted materially since then. Under President Donald Trump, U.S. regulators have adopted a more crypto-friendly posture, with the Securities and Exchange Commission increasingly exploring frameworks for tokenized securities and blockchain-based capital formation.
That change is encouraging crypto firms to revisit token sales as a legitimate fundraising mechanism rather than a regulatory gray area.
“It is a major shift in how stakeholders can participate in the growth of networks,” Allaire said. “Every company in the world, over time, will be tokenized, meaning your shares will be tokens … [and] you will use digital tokens as mechanisms of engagement with your customers and stakeholders.”