Circle Stock Surges 16% After $222M 'Arc' L1 Token Presale With Backing From BlackRock and Apollo
Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) shrugged off the noise surrounding U.S. stablecoin politics and rallied hard Monday, closing up about 16% as investors reacted to a major funding milestone for the company's next blockchain bet.
Circle said it completed a $222 million prelaunch token sale for Arc, its new layer-one (L1) blockchain project, at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation. Participants in the presale included a16z, BlackRock, Apollo, Ark Invest and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Circle is positioning Arc as infrastructure for payments, tokenization and an "Agent Stack" aimed at bringing AI and blockchain together. The transaction marks the first time a U.S.-listed public company has conducted a prelaunch token sale.
CRCL traded between $129 and $134 on heavy volume, briefly climbing close to 19% intraday before easing into the close. The move lifted Circle's year-to-date gain for 2026 to roughly 68% as of May 11, 2026.
The rally came on the same day Circle reported first-quarter 2026 results. The company posted total revenue and reserve income of $694 million, up 20% year over year but below some Wall Street expectations around $715 million. Net income from continuing operations was $55 million, down 15% from a year earlier, pressured by higher post-IPO stock-based compensation and increased growth spending. Adjusted EBITDA rose about 24%.
Investors focused on USDC adoption metrics. USDC in circulation reached $77.0 billion at quarter-end, a 28% increase year over year. Onchain transaction volume handled via USDC totaled $21.5 trillion in Q1 2026, up 263% from Q1 2025, spanning payments, decentralized finance (DeFi) and tokenized assets.
On the earnings call at 8:00 a.m. ET, CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the quarter as part of a broader shift in financial infrastructure. He argued USDC's growth is less tied to crypto price cycles and more driven by scaling stablecoin rails and expanding use in payments and tokenization.
Traders pointed to the Arc financing as the main catalyst behind the afternoon acceleration: shares jumped premarket, dipped after the mixed financial print, then surged as details of the presale circulated.
The stock's strength also came as Washington debates over the CLARITY Act—a bipartisan stablecoin regulatory framework moving through Congress in early May—continue to pit traditional banking interests against stablecoin issuers and exchanges. Retail chatter on platforms such as Stocktwits leaned strongly bullish, with CRCL frequently grouped with other crypto-linked names.
Crypto-related equities broadly advanced Monday. Coinbase Global (Nasdaq: COIN) rose 7.68% intraday to around $216.60. Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) gained about 4.5% to above $195. Bitgo (NYSE: BTGO), which listed in January 2026, added roughly 3.8% to about $12.97.
U.S. markets finished higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 95.31 points to 49,704.47. The S&P 500 rose 13.91 points to 7,412.84, a record close. The Nasdaq Composite gained 27.05 points to 26,274.12, and the NYSE Composite increased 23.38 points to 22,965.53.
Analysts tracking CRCL said volatility remains elevated across crypto-adjacent stocks, where gap-and-fill trading patterns are common. Some have flagged $150 as a potential upside target if USDC adoption stays strong and Arc gains traction in the coming months.
