Author: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise
Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News
Industry news often arrives in clusters. When such a moment occurs, it deserves close attention, as there must be a significant trend unfolding behind it.
Just this Monday, stablecoin issuer Circle officially announced that its new blockchain project, Arc, secured $222 million in funding, reaching an overall valuation of $3 billion. The investor lineup is impressive, including top-tier institutions like BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
Just the day before, news surfaced of funding for Canton Network, another emerging blockchain developed by Digital Asset: a $300 million raise led by a16z at a $2 billion valuation.
Adding to the trend, Stripe's Tempo blockchain has been leading the charge: completing a $5 billion funding round at a $50 billion valuation late last year, and subsequently announcing strategic partnerships with enterprises like DoorDash and Visa.
Arc, Canton, and Tempo—all three public blockchains are tailor-made for stablecoin and asset tokenization scenarios. This wave of concentrated financing fervor has also led me to summarize three crucial insights for the crypto industry.
Capital Always Follows Regulation and Legislation
The aforementioned multi-hundred-million-dollar mega-rounds all occurred after the U.S. Congress passed the Genius Act in July 2025.
I have always believed that before the bill's enactment, the sluggish pace of crypto legislation in the U.S. directly dampened industry investment enthusiasm; major institutions were unwilling to hastily deploy capital or build public chain infrastructure amidst uncertain regulatory prospects. Now, with regulation clarified, the industry landscape is shifting.
No one can say for sure if these projects could have maintained their current valuations or completed such large-scale fundraising without the supportive framework of the Genius Act. However, it is certain that regulatory clarity played a pivotal role in propelling them forward.
For investors, the most critical question to ponder is: How much potential would be unlocked if the comprehensive crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act, successfully passes Congress?
The Clarity Act has a much broader scope than the Genius Act, and its final text is yet to be finalized, making precise impact prediction difficult for now. But one thing is clear: the asset tokenization sector and compliant financial infrastructure will be among the biggest beneficiaries. I also hope the final bill will benefit areas like decentralized finance and innovative token design, though specifics await the official text. The Clarity Act is worth everyone's continued attention.
Privacy Protection Might Become the Next Killer App
Arc, Canton, and Tempo share a common feature—and the biggest distinction from Ethereum and Solana: all three public blockchains natively incorporate private transaction functionality.
As crypto assets gradually integrate into mainstream business scenarios, this design logic aligns perfectly with real-world needs. The transparency of public blockchains, originally a cornerstone for building trust, can become a drawback in commercial settings.
Businesses do not want every pending transaction to be publicly visible on a global ledger, and employees do not want their salary payments traceable by anyone via a block explorer. In such cases, transparency ceases to be an advantage and instead becomes a practical pain point.
Even the staunchest advocates of blockchain transparency must admit: the business world inherently requires a degree of privacy and confidentiality. These new public chains, designed from the ground up with privacy features, precisely address the genuine needs of traditional institutions. The recent series of high-value funding rounds confirms that this direction is spot on.
Traditional Giants Are Officially Entering the Arena
The most unique aspect of Arc, Canton, and Tempo is their backing by top-tier corporations and financial institutions.
- Arc is developed and led by the publicly-traded company Circle;
- Canton's backers include Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs, Citadel, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Nasdaq, BNY Mellon, S&P Global, and Virtu;
- Tempo is co-created by payments giant Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, with Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, Revolut, Shopify, Visa, and OpenAI all participating in its architectural design.
In stark contrast, established public chains have different origins: Ethereum was proposed by a 19-year-old dropout on a Bitcoin forum, and Solana was conceived from an engineer's spark of inspiration at Qualcomm.
Of course, this doesn't guarantee that traditional giants will inevitably win. Personally, I remain more bullish on crypto-native projects in the long term. However, it's undeniable that the entry of banks and large tech corporations brings deeper pockets, stronger execution for real-world implementation, and more professional, standardized operations to the industry.
Competition breeds excellence. I believe that under the two-way competition between giants and native projects, the pace of innovation and the boundaries of development for the entire crypto industry will be further expanded.
After all, iron sharpens iron, and progress is born from competition.
