Stablecoin giant Circle minted 10 billion ARC tokens on Wednesday, Sept. 16, after selling more than 8% of the supply to institutions, though says a public token launch is still not guaranteed.
- The USDC issuer said in an X post on Wednesday it completed the genesis mint of ARC, creating the entire initial supply as its Arc blockchain went live on public mainnet.
- Circle called itself "the first publicly traded company to mint a network token for a new blockchain."
- But the company attached an unusually extensive caveat to the milestone.
ARC is currently not tradable, available for public use or active for staking, governance, fees or other utility.
Circle said the mint itself represents no commitment to publicly launch the token.
Arc also remains a Proof-of-Authority network, with Circle only exploring a transition to Proof-of-Stake in 2027.
Circle said the mint itself represents no commitment to publicly launch the token.
Arc also remains a Proof-of-Authority network, with Circle only exploring a transition to Proof-of-Stake in 2027.
Institutions already bought 8% of ARC
The disclaimer comes despite Circle already signing agreements to sell a substantial chunk of the token supply.
- Circle disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that institutional investors agreed to purchase more than 807 million ARC (or about 8% of the initial supply) for $0.30 each.
- The agreements generated about $242 million in gross proceeds and implied a $3 billion fully diluted valuation for a token that remains unavailable to the public.
But those deals also come with an unusual deadline
Under Circle's filings, holders representing a majority of the presale tokens can require repayment of their purchase price if the tokens aren't delivered or Arc hasn't switched to Proof-of-Stake or delegated Proof-of-Stake by May 8, 2028.
Circle has said it currently intends to deliver the tokens and pursue the transition within that timeframe.
Under Circle's filings, holders representing a majority of the presale tokens can require repayment of their purchase price if the tokens aren't delivered or Arc hasn't switched to Proof-of-Stake or delegated Proof-of-Stake by May 8, 2028.
Circle has said it currently intends to deliver the tokens and pursue the transition within that timeframe.
Yet, that doesn't necessarily mean Circle is contractually required to publicly launch ARC by 2028 as tokens can be delivered to private investors without becoming freely available to the broader market.
For now, Arc operates without ARC. The network launched publicly on Wednesday with USDC used for transaction fees and a validator set that includes financial heavyweights such as BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, ICE, Standard Chartered and DTCC.