Circle's Arc Privacy this time really hits the compliance pain points for institutions, balancing privacy and auditability. Both a16z and BlackRock have placed bets, it seems the RWA track is about to get lively again.

Circle has announced the launch of Arc Privacy, introducing a confidential smart contract engine to the Arc blockchain to provide privacy protection for transactions and smart contract activity, while also allowing authorized parties to review data and addressing compliance challenges posed by data transparency for institutional blockchains. The announcement is based on the May institutional blockchain strategy: the Arc token pre-sale raised $222 million, the network valuation is $3 billion, and investors include Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock, and others.