Circle adds $3 billion Wall Street Arc token risking an uncomfortable rivalry with Coinbase

Circle's $222 million ARC token presale has given Wall Street a new way to value the USDC issuer, while raising a harder question for one of crypto’s most profitable alliances. On May 11, Circle said investors led by a16z Crypto backed the presale of ARC, the native token for Arc, its planned public blockchain for institutional finance. The sale valued the network at $3 billion on a fully diluted basis and came alongside first-quarter results that showed $694 million in total revenue and reserve income, up 20% from a year earlier. At the same time, USDC in circulation rose 28% to $77 billion, while on-chain transaction volume reached $21.5 trillion, up 263% year over year. Circle's Q1 Earnings Report (Source: Circle) Those figures reinforced Circle’s position as one of the main issuers in the global stablecoin market, where tokenized dollars have become core infrastructure for trading, payments, and settlement. However, the more important development was Circle’s attempt to move beyond issuance through its new blockchain network, Arc. Arc gives the company a network-level growth story built around payments, tokenized assets, foreign exchange, capital markets, and AI-driven commerce. That push places Circle closer to the terrain already occupied by Coinbase , its longtime USDC partner and the operator of Base, the Layer 2 network that the US-based exchange has positioned as a settlement layer for stablecoins, consumer payments, and agentic transactions. Considering this, Circle’s aggressive expansion could bring a new competition to the crypto landscape: a looming, head-to-head battle with Coinbase. Circle gives investors a wider story Circle’s business has long been tied to the economics of stablecoin reserves. The company issues USDC, holds safe assets backing the token, and earns income on those reserves. That model can be powerful when rates are elevated, but it also raises questions about how durable its earnings will be as interest income declines. Arc is Circle’s answer to that concern. The company is pitching the network as an “economic operating system” for the internet, a shared environment where stablecoins, tokenized assets, and financial applications can operate on common infrastructure. The chain is expected to be EVM-compatible, with stablecoin-native fees, deterministic sub-second finality, and configurable privacy designed for institutions that need auditability without exposing every transaction detail to the public. Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire framed the quarter around the convergence of AI platforms and on-chain money, saying: “Circle’s first quarter reflected strong execution against a much bigger opportunity: the rapid convergence of AI platforms and economic operating systems into a new internet stack. With the ARC token presale, momentum behind the Arc network, and the launch of our Agent Stack, we are building trusted infrastructure for AI-native economic activity and a more programmable internet financial system.” The investor list shows how far that pitch now reaches. a16z Crypto led the presale with a $75 million investment. Other participants included BlackRock , Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group , Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst,a IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, and Bullish. The message to investors is clear: Circle wants to be valued less as a stablecoin issuer exposed to rate cycles and more as a full-stack infrastructure company for on-chain finance. In a note shared with CryptoSlate , Clear Street analysts echoed that view, writing that Circle is “no longer a pure crypto play” and has built the Layer 1 network, application layer, and partner ecosystem required to become a critical infrastructure provider. The firm raised its price target on the stock from $152 to $157, citing Arc, Agent Stack, Circle Payments Network, and regulatory momentum as potential sources of upside. Arc gives Circle its own venue Circle's new Arc blockchain changes the firm's role in the stablecoin economy . USDC already moves across more than 30 blockchains and is integrated throughout exchanges, wallets, fintech platforms, and institutional systems. That distribution has been one of the stablecoin’s main strengths. Circle could grow as USDC became more widely used, regardless of where the activity settled. Arc gives Circle a reason to bring more of that activity onto the infrastructure it controls. The network is designed to support payments, lending, foreign exchange, capital markets, and tokenized assets. Circle has also positioned ARC as a coordination token for validators, builders, liquidity providers, exchanges, institutions, and users. In that structure, USDC remains the transactional asset, while ARC is intended to help govern economic rules and align network participants. That creates a broader economic layer around Circle’s core product. If Arc gains traction, investors will not only measure Circle by USDC circulation and rese