#Gate广场五月交易分享 Circle blockchain Arc emerges: USDC's 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: the Q1 2026 performance report and the pre-sale financing of 222 million USD 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 financial infrastructure layer of 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 USD, a 20% year-over-year increase.
This is not driven by trading fees or speculative activities, but solid reserve interest income — the returns generated by USD reserves backing USDC.
Even more impressive data:
USDC circulation reaches 77 billion USD, a 28% increase
On-chain USDC transaction volume reaches 21.5 trillion USD, a 263% increase
Circle Payments Network (CPN) annualized transaction volume reaches 8.3 billion USD
Since the testnet launch of the Arc platform in October 2025, it has accumulated 244.1 million transactions
The 21.5 trillion USD on-chain transaction volume — this number even surpasses many traditional payment networks.
Arc public chain: Circle’s Layer1 ambitions
Circle raised 222 million USD in the pre-sale of the Arc public chain's native token, corresponding to a fully diluted valuation of about 3 billion USD.
The list of leading investors is very prestigious: a16z crypto led the round, with participants including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, ICE (parent company of NYSE), SBI Group, Janus Henderson, Standard Chartered Venture Capital, ARK Invest, and about ten other institutions.
What do these names signify? Top Wall Street institutions are recognizing Circle’s Layer1 narrative.
The core selling point of the Arc public chain is "programmable internet finance." It is not an ordinary Layer1 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 USD), while Circle is building a complete digital dollar financial stack.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire previously said: "We are not building a crypto project; we are rebuilding global financial infrastructure."
New bank Augustus obtains OCC license, with bigger implications
On the same day, another important news: the new bank Augustus received a national bank charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and completed a 40 million USD funding round.
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 moments
On May 12, the U.S. will release April 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: compliance-first, institution-driven, 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.