Arc, Canton and Tempo raise over $1B for privacy-focused blockchains

Three privacy-focused blockchain networks, Arc, Canton, and Tempo, have collectively raised more than $1 billion in funding, each commanding valuations north of $10 billion combined. The money isn’t coming from the usual crypto-native suspects alone. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Deutsche Bank, and Stripe are all in the mix.

The billion-dollar breakdown

Circle’s Arc network closed a $222 million token presale at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation. BlackRock and Apollo led the round. Circle already operates USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, and Arc represents its bet that stablecoin settlement needs a dedicated privacy layer rather than just riding existing public chains.

Canton Network is reportedly raising $300 million at a $2 billion valuation. The round is being led by a16z, with Goldman Sachs and Citadel among the participants. Canton was originally built by Digital Asset Holdings using its smart contract language, DAML, and focuses on institutional asset tokenization with built-in privacy controls that let counterparties share transaction data selectively.

Then there’s Tempo, incubated by Stripe, which pulled in $500 million at a $5 billion valuation. Visa and Deutsche Bank contributed to the round. Stripe’s involvement is particularly telling. The payments giant acquired stablecoin platform Bridge last year, and Tempo appears to be an extension of that thesis: that programmable money needs programmable privacy to work at scale for businesses.

Why privacy, and why now

Public blockchains like Ethereum offer transparency by design. It’s a dealbreaker for a Goldman Sachs trading desk that doesn’t want competitors front-running its positions or a corporate treasury that doesn’t want its cash management strategy visible to the world. Privacy-focused chains solve this by allowing selective disclosure, where the data exists on-chain but access is permissioned.

Stablecoin legislation is advancing in the US, with both the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act moving through Congress. Regulatory clarity tends to unlock institutional capital, and institutions are clearly pre-positioning by backing the infrastructure they expect to use once rules are finalized.

Visa’s $7 billion signal

Perhaps the strongest validation for these networks comes from Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot, which now operates at a $7 billion annualized run rate across nine blockchains, including Arc and Canton.

Visa processed roughly $15 trillion in total payment volume in its most recent fiscal year. A $7 billion stablecoin run rate is a rounding error by comparison, but it demonstrates that one of the world’s largest payment networks sees privacy-enabled chains as production-ready. The pilot’s inclusion of Arc and Canton specifically, rather than just established public chains, suggests Visa views privacy features as a prerequisite for scaling stablecoin settlement beyond pilot stage.

What this means for investors

Arc has the advantage of Circle’s USDC distribution network. Canton has deep ties to traditional finance through Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and its existing deployment with several major exchanges and custodians. Tempo has Stripe’s merchant network and Visa’s payment rails.

Token presales at multi-billion-dollar valuations, like Arc’s $3 billion FDV, carry significant dilution risk for retail participants who buy after launch. Canton and Tempo’s rounds are structured more like traditional venture raises, but the same valuation concerns apply. Investors should be asking whether these networks can generate transaction volume and fee revenue that justifies current pricing, or whether the valuations are primarily based on the prestige of their backers.