Analyzing the underlying transformation logic of the crypto industry from the expensive financing of Arc, Canton, and Tempo.

Written by: Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise

Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News

Industry news often clusters together. Moments like these deserve high attention, as there are certainly significant trends occurring behind them.

Just this Monday, stablecoin issuer Circle announced that its brand new blockchain project Arc has completed a $222 million financing round, with a total valuation reaching $3 billion. The lineup of investors is impressive, including top institutions such as BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

The day before, another emerging blockchain, Canton Network, developed by Digital Asset, announced financing news: led by a16z, raising $300 million at a valuation of $2 billion.

Not coincidentally, Tempo, a blockchain under Stripe, has already taken the lead in the space: completing a $500 million financing round at the end of last year, with a valuation as high as $5 billion, and subsequently announcing strategic partnerships with companies like DoorDash and Visa.

Arc, Canton, and Tempo are all public chains designed specifically for stablecoin and asset tokenization scenarios. This wave of concentrated financing has led me to summarize three crucial insights about the crypto industry.

Capital Always Follows Regulatory Legislation

The aforementioned large financing rounds, each several hundred million dollars, all occurred after the passing of the "Genius Act" by the U.S. Congress in July 2025.

I have always believed that before the legislation was finalized, the sluggish progress of U.S. crypto legislation directly dampened industry investment enthusiasm; major institutions were unwilling to rashly lay out their businesses and build public chain infrastructures under an unclear regulatory outlook. Now that regulations are becoming clearer, the industry landscape is changing.

No one can ascertain whether these projects would maintain their current valuations or complete large fundraising without the protection of the "Genius Act," but it is certain that clear regulations have played a crucial boosting role.

For investors, the most thought-provoking question is: if the comprehensive market framework legislation of the crypto industry, the "Clarity Act," is smoothly passed in Congress, what magnitude of industry opportunities will it release?

The coverage of the "Clarity Act" exceeds that of the "Genius Act," and the final text of the bill has not yet been finalized, making it temporarily impossible to accurately predict the range of its impact. But it can be confirmed that the asset tokenization space and compliant financial infrastructure will be the biggest beneficiary directions. I also hope that the final version of the bill will benefit areas like decentralized finance and innovative token design, though we still need to wait for the formal text to be finalized. The "Clarity Act" is worth continuous tracking by everyone.

Privacy Protection May Become a Phenomenon-Level Core Application

Arc, Canton, and Tempo share a common characteristic that is also the biggest difference from Ethereum and Solana: all three public chains natively incorporate private transaction functionalities.

As crypto assets gradually integrate into mainstream business scenarios, this design logic aligns closely with actual demands. The transparency of public blockchains is a cornerstone for building trust, but in commercial contexts, it can become a shortfall.

Enterprises are reluctant to make every unfinished transaction publicly available across the network, and employees do not wish for their salary flows to be easily searchable by anyone through a blockchain explorer. In this case, transparency becomes a reality pain point rather than an advantage.

Even the most steadfast supporters of blockchain transparency must admit: the business world requires a certain level of privacy and information confidentiality. These three emerging public chains have embedded privacy features from the ground up, precisely hitting the true needs of traditional institutions. Recent rounds of high financing also prove that this path is entirely correct.

Traditional Giants Officially Enter the Race and Compete in the Space

The most unique aspect of Arc, Canton, and Tempo is that they are backed by top corporations and financial institutions.

• Arc is developed primarily by the listed company Circle;
• Canton's investment backers include Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs, Citadel, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Nasdaq, BNY Mellon, S&P Global, and Virtu;
• Tempo is a joint creation of the payment giant Stripe and crypto venture capital Paradigm, with contributions to the project design from Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, Revolut, Shopify, Visa, and OpenAI.

In contrast, older public chains are entirely different: Ethereum was initiated by a 19-year-old dropout in the Bitcoin forum, while Solana was conceived by a Qualcomm engineer in a moment of inspiration.

Of course, this does not mean that traditional giants will definitely win; in fact, I personally hold a more optimistic long-term view of crypto-native projects. However, it is undeniable that the entry of banks and large technology companies will bring stronger capital, greater execution ability, and more professional standardized operations to the industry.

Competitors pushing for growth make for mutual progress; I believe under the dual competition of giants and native projects, the entire crypto industry's innovation speed and development boundaries will be further expanded.

After all, steel sharpens steel, and competition gives rise to progress.