Arc, Canton, and Tempo raised over $1 billion after the stablecoin law passed. Hougan says the pending Clarity Act is the next binary catalyst for tokenization platforms.
Three corporate-backed blockchain projects have secured more than $1 billion in combined fundraising, a wave that Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan directly ties to the GENIUS Act signed into law in July 2025. The capital flowed into Arc, Canton Network, and Tempo – chains built with native privacy features and institutional backing from inception. Hougan’s memo frames the raises as evidence that regulatory clarity is the primary allocation trigger for institutional crypto capital. He points to the pending Clarity Act as the next binary catalyst for tokenization platforms.
The three projects differ in origin. Each was incubated by a major corporate player and designed to meet the confidentiality demands of large financial institutions.
| Project | Valuation | Amount Raised | Key Backers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arc (Circle) | $3 billion (FDV) | $222 million | BlackRock, Apollo, Intercontinental Exchange |
| Canton Network | $2 billion | $300 million (target) | Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, Citadel, DTCC, BNY, S&P Global, Nasdaq, Virtu |
| Tempo (Stripe) | $5 billion | $500 million | Paradigm, Visa, DoorDash; design input from Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, Revolut, Shopify, Visa, OpenAI |
Circle’s Arc closed a $222 million token presale at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation. BlackRock, Apollo, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) backed the raise. Circle already issues USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market value, giving Arc a direct link to dollar-denominated liquidity.
Canton Network sought to raise $300 million at a $2 billion valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz leading the round. The backer list includes Goldman Sachs (GS), Citadel, DTCC, BNY, S&P Global, Nasdaq, and Virtu. The network is designed for regulated asset tokenization and inter-institutional settlement.
Stripe incubated Tempo, which raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation late last year. Paradigm supported development. The project later added partnerships with Visa, DoorDash, and others. Design input came from teams at Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, Revolut, Shopify, Visa, and OpenAI.
Hougan’s memo draws a straight line from the GENIUS Act – a stablecoin-focused law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in July 2025 – to the sudden availability of institutional capital.
“Pre-GENIUS, institutions were reluctant to commit capital,” Hougan wrote.
He added that the raises followed quickly after the law took effect. The timing, he argued, is not coincidental. The GENIUS Act reduced legal uncertainty for corporate builders by creating a federal framework for stablecoin issuance and operation. That framework gave Arc, which is tied to USDC, a clearer compliance path. It also signaled to backers of Canton and Tempo that the U.S. regulatory environment was shifting from enforcement-driven ambiguity to rules-based permission.
Key insight: The GENIUS Act did not directly fund these projects. It removed the legal ambiguity that had kept institutional capital on the sidelines. The money moved once the legal risk was priced lower.
All three chains built native privacy into their transaction models. Hougan argued that institutions require confidentiality for trade flows, payroll data, and supply-chain information. Public transparency on a ledger like Ethereum (ETH) can create business risk before execution. A competitor seeing a large stablecoin movement could front-run a corporate strategy.
Hougan contrasted these efforts with Ethereum and Solana, which launched with public-first designs. Ethereum began on a Bitcoin forum, while Solana emerged from an engineering breakthrough. The new chains, he said, were institutionally backed from inception and designed to meet compliance and privacy requirements from day one.
The privacy feature is a double-edged risk. If regulators eventually require full auditability or impose travel-rule-style transparency on private transactions, these chains could face a compliance overhaul. The Clarity Act will be the first test of whether Congress endorses privacy-preserving institutional chains or demands a more open architecture.
The Clarity Act aims to define broader crypto market structure rules. Hougan said tokenization platforms and regulated infrastructure providers could benefit most from the final language. He added that support for decentralized finance and new token designs remains possible but unconfirmed.
The bill’s markup and final text will determine whether Arc, Canton, and Tempo operate inside a federally recognized sandbox or face a patchwork of state-level and agency-level rules. Earlier signals that the bill is “closer than ever” and the CLARITY Act markup have already moved market sentiment. A favorable outcome could validate the $1 billion already deployed and trigger a second wave of institutional allocations.
A restrictive bill would leave these projects with a product that may not fit the final regulatory perimeter. Hougan acknowledged the competitive risk from public chains, writing, “My money is mostly on the crypto natives,” while noting the new entrants could raise standards across blockchain development. He did not declare a winner among Arc, Canton, or Tempo.
Four provisions in the Clarity Act would validate the $1 billion institutional bet and lower the risk profile for these projects.
If the Clarity Act delivers on these points, the three projects would have a regulatory moat that public chains cannot easily replicate. The $2 billion to $5 billion valuations would look less like pre-revenue speculation and more like discounted entry prices for licensed financial infrastructure.
Four threats could force a rapid repricing of corporate blockchain risk.
Goldman Sachs (Alpha Score 56, Moderate) and Intercontinental Exchange (Alpha Score 40, Mixed) are among the backers, reflecting a mix of conviction and caution. The capital is committed. The regulatory outcome will determine whether these bets pay off or become expensive experiments in institutional wishful thinking.
Bottom line for traders: The Clarity Act is the next concrete catalyst. Its language on tokenization and privacy will either validate the $1 billion institutional bet or force a rapid repricing of corporate blockchain risk.
Drafted by the AlphaScala research model and grounded in primary market data – live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.