TLDR
- Arc, Canton and Tempo have raised a combined $1 billion-plus at valuations exceeding $10 billion
- Circle raised $222 million for Arc at a $3 billion valuation; Digital Asset is raising $300 million for Canton at a $2 billion valuation
- Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, previously raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation
- Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says privacy could become a “killer app” for crypto in mainstream finance
- The fundraising wave follows passage of the Genius Act in 2025, giving institutions clearer regulatory ground
Three institution-focused blockchains have raised over $1 billion combined, pointing to a shift in how the crypto industry is building its next layer of infrastructure.
For years, crypto sold transparency as the revolution.
Now institutions are paying over $1B for the opposite: PRIVACY.
Arc, Canton and Tempo just locked in massive funding to build compliant, institution-focused chains where trades, positions and counterparties aren’t publicly… pic.twitter.com/QjqimZWixq
— MarketUnfiltered (@subhashishc0x) May 12, 2026
Arc, Canton and Tempo are all designed around stablecoins and tokenization. Their combined valuations now top $10 billion, driven by demand from institutions that want blockchain technology but also need privacy, compliance and speed.
Circle raised $222 million for Arc at a $3 billion valuation. Digital Asset is reportedly in the process of raising $300 million for the Canton blockchain, which would value it at $2 billion. Tempo, which has backing from Stripe and Paradigm, raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation in an earlier round.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan wrote about the trend in a blog post on Tuesday. He said the fundraising reflects three things happening at once: clearer U.S. regulation, rising demand for private blockchain transactions, and growing competition from corporate-backed crypto networks.
Hougan pointed out that public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana make all transactions visible to anyone. That transparency works well for some use cases, but not for businesses or workers who need financial privacy.
“If you’re a business broadcasting every trade before it’s complete, or a worker whose paycheck is visible to anyone with a block explorer, that transparency is a bug, not a feature,” Hougan said.
Why Privacy Matters for Institutions
For institutions, the lack of privacy on public blockchains has been a real barrier. A company settling a large trade on a fully open network risks front-running, where other market participants can see the transaction coming and act on it first.
Stablecoins and tokenized assets — where blockchain versions of real-world financial instruments are traded — need networks that are fast and cheap, but also secure and private enough to meet compliance requirements.
The three blockchains raising money are built with those needs in mind. They aim to serve banks, asset managers and large companies rather than retail users.
Regulation Clearing the Path
Hougan also pointed to the Genius Act, passed by Congress in 2025, as a turning point. The legislation gave stablecoin issuers a clearer legal framework in the United States, which has encouraged more institutional money to flow into crypto infrastructure.
Before the law passed, many institutions held back investment because the regulatory picture was unclear. The Genius Act removed some of that uncertainty.
The funding rounds for Arc, Canton and Tempo suggest that institutions are now moving from watching the space to actively building in it. The combined billion-dollar raise signals that privacy-focused blockchain infrastructure is being taken seriously as a long-term investment.
Hougan’s view is that privacy could be the feature that finally makes blockchain technology practical for mainstream finance. The money flowing into these three projects suggests others agree.
