The company behind the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization has completed a $222 million presale for a new token tied to its forthcoming blockchain, Arc.
Following the presale, the project’s fully diluted valuation stands at $3 billion. Company CEO Jeremy Allaire also indicated the firm plans to expand into the applications space.
In its Q1 results press release, Circle reported that USDC in circulation grew 28% during the first quarter, reaching $77 billion. On-chain USDC transaction volume surged more than 260% to $21.5 trillion. Total revenue and reserve income for Q1 amounted to $694 million, up 20% year over year.
The $222 million presale, which valued the network at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation, attracted participation from major institutional and legacy investors, including ARK Invest, BlackRock, Bullish, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group, and Standard Chartered Ventures.
The white paper for the new asset, ARC Token, was published today. It describes how a native coordination asset could support governance, security, and network operations on the Arc blockchain.
“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 … and we’re also getting into the apps business,” CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC.
Allaire added that the company’s Agent Stack will create trusted infrastructure designed to support AI-native economic activity and a more programmable internet financial system.
Circle’s stock (CRCL) rose more than 2% in pre-market trading. The shares had jumped 20% the previous week after two U.S. senators announced a bipartisan agreement on key elements of a stablecoin regulatory framework.