#Gate广场五月交易分享 Circle Public Blockchain Arc Emerges: The USDC Crypto Empire

One of the most significant news in the crypto world this week comes from USDC issuer Circle.
On May 11, Circle announced two major events: its Q1 2026 performance report and a $222 million pre-sale funding for the new public chain Arc’s native token. Looking at these two events together, Circle’s ambitions are now clearly visible — it aims not only to be a stablecoin issuer but to become the foundational layer of financial infrastructure in the crypto world.
Circle Q1 Performance: The Real "Money Printer"
Data shows that Circle’s total revenue and reserve income in Q1 2026 reached $694 million, a 20% year-over-year increase.
This is not driven by trading fees or speculative activities, but by actual reserve interest income — the returns generated from USD reserves backing USDC.
Even more impressive data:
USDC circulation reached $77 billion, a 28% increase
On-chain USDC transaction volume hit $21.5 trillion, a 263% increase
Circle Payments Network (CPN) annualized transaction volume reached $8.3 billion
Since the Arc platform went live on the testnet in October 2025, it has processed a total of 244.1 million transactions
The $21.5 trillion on-chain transaction volume — this number even surpasses many traditional payment networks.
Arc Public Chain: Circle’s Layer 1 Ambition
Circle raised $222 million in the pre-sale of Arc’s native tokens, valuing the fully diluted project at approximately $3 billion.
The list of lead investors is very prestigious: a16z crypto led the round, with participants including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ICE (the parent company of NYSE), SBI Group, Janus Henderson, Standard Chartered Ventures, ARK Invest, and about ten other institutions.
What does this mean? Top Wall Street institutions are recognizing Circle’s Layer 1 narrative.
The core selling point of the Arc public chain is "programmable internet finance." It’s not just an ordinary Layer 1 but a dedicated chain built around digital dollars, global payments, and the Agentic Economy.
From Stablecoins to "Digital Dollar Banking"
Circle’s strategic path is becoming clearer: USDC (money layer) → CPN (payment layer) → Arc (settlement layer).
This path is completely different from Tether. Tether focuses on the circulation scale of USDT (currently about $110 billion), while Circle is building a complete digital dollar financial stack.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire previously said: "We’re not building a crypto project; we’re rebuilding global financial infrastructure."
New Bank Augustus Receives OCC License, Signaling Greater Ambitions
On the same day, another important news broke: the new bank Augustus received a nationwide banking license from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and completed $40 million in funding.
Augustus’s core business is reconstructing cross-border clearing systems using AI and stablecoins, with clients including crypto exchange Kra, handling billions of euros annually with a tenfold increase year-over-year.
Circle’s business has significant synergy with Augustus. The stablecoin payment capabilities of the Arc public chain, combined with Augustus’s banking license and cross-border clearing system, form a complete compliant stablecoin financial network.
Key Dates
May 12: The U.S. will release April’s CPI data.
On the same day, the FT-Digital Assets Summit 2026 opens.
Circle’s Arc public chain token sale, combined with these macro events, could trigger a revaluation of the stablecoin and crypto infrastructure sectors.
From USDC to Arc, Circle is forging a path different from all other crypto projects: prioritizing compliance, driven by institutions, and infrastructure-oriented.
If Arc succeeds, Circle will be more than just a stablecoin issuer — it will become the "Federal Reserve + SWIFT + NASDAQ" of the crypto world.