Circle published the ARC whitepaper on May 11 and has already closed a $222 million private presale of its native token at a fully-diluted valuation of $3 billion. The round, led by a16z crypto with a $75 million check, marks the first time a publicly listed company has run a token presale, according to CoinDesk and The Block. The sale placed 740 million tokens at $0.30 each — 7.4% of the 10 billion initial supply — and sets a floor price for ARC before any exchange listing.
The investor lineup
The buyer list reads like a who's who of both Wall Street and crypto. Alongside a16z, participants include BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ICE, ARK Invest, Bullish, Haun Ventures, SBI Group, Janus Henderson, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, and IDG Capital. That mix of traditional asset managers, exchange infrastructure, regulated banks, and crypto-native funds suggests Circle is deliberately bridging the two worlds. The company didn't comment on any future exchange listings or lockup terms.
Tokenomics and allocation
ARC's supply is split three ways: 60% goes to the ecosystem — the highest share among recent L1 launches, beating Aptos (51%), Sui (~26%), Celestia (~20%), Berachain (48.9%), and Monad (49.3%). Circle holds 25%, a unique issuer-held bucket since Circle is a public company sponsor, not a traditional VC or team equity. The remaining ~15% isn't broken out in public materials. Many economic parameters — inflation rate, decay curve, validator/burn split, vesting — are left to a future governance vote.
First of its kind
Running a token presale as a publicly listed company is new territory. The $0.30 presale price effectively serves as a price floor, but whether secondary markets respect that is another question. The chain currently runs on Proof-of-Authority; Proof-of-Stake is supposed to come later, enabled by the token. That transition timeline isn't set yet.
Mainnet is targeted for summer 2026; the public testnet has been live since October 2025. Circle still needs to nail down a lot in governance — the whitepaper leaves the vesting schedule, inflation decay, and that missing ~15% allocation to a vote. Presale investors are waiting on those details too. No date has been given for the governance vote.
