News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily. Bernstein stated in its latest research report that the newly reached compromise on stablecoin yields under the U.S. CLARITY Act is structurally beneficial for Circle and the USDC ecosystem.The report notes that the current version of the bill prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest to passive holders that is "economically equivalent" to bank deposits, but allows reward mechanisms tied to actual transaction, payment, and usage activities to continue. Bernstein believes this means Circle's current model, which relies on partners like Coinbase to provide USDC reward programs, will gain regulatory recognition, while also limiting the industry's ability to compete for market share through high yields.Bernstein points out that the bill effectively reinforces the positioning of stablecoins as "payment tools" rather than "deposit substitutes," helping to protect Circle's current business model that relies on reserve income. The firm maintains an "Outperform" rating for Circle with a $190 target price.Data shows that the total global supply of dollar-pegged stablecoins has surpassed $300 billion, with USDT and USDC collectively accounting for approximately 97% of the market share. Bernstein notes that USDC's share in on-chain payments and wallet transfers is steadily increasing, and its share of payments in the AI Agent payment protocol x402 has exceeded 99%.Additionally, Bernstein mentioned that Circle's ARC chain has cumulatively completed 244 million testnet transactions. The ARC token pre-sale previously raised $222 million, with investors including a16z crypto, Apollo Funds, ARK Invest, and BlackRock.However, the report also points out that the CLARITY Act still needs to complete multiple legislative procedures before it takes effect, including a 60-vote threshold in the full Senate and coordination with the House version. Polymarket currently estimates its probability of passage by 2026 at approximately 62%. (The Block)
Cathie Wood posted on X platform, stating that ARK participated in Kalshi's latest funding round, believing that prediction markets are emerging as a new layer of financial infrastructure, enabling real-time price discovery around events, probabilities, and the evolving state of the world. Kalshi is at the forefront of this innovation, and ARK supports the team in pushing the boundaries of how information is aggregated and expressed through markets.
Circle has released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. The data shows that as of the end of the first quarter, the circulating supply of USDC reached $77 billion, a year-over-year increase of 28%; on-chain transaction volume for USDC in the first quarter reached $21.5 trillion, up 263% year-over-year.The financial report indicates that Circle's total revenue and reserve income for the first quarter was $694 million, a 20% increase year-over-year; adjusted EBITDA was $151 million, up 24% year-over-year; net profit was $55 million, a 15% decrease year-over-year.Additionally, Circle disclosed that its ARC Token pre-sale raised $222 million, with a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion. Participants included institutions such as a16z crypto, BlackRock, and ARK Invest. The company also announced the launch of the "Agent Stack" infrastructure for AI agent scenarios, including products like Agent Wallets and Agent Marketplace, designed to support AI agent payments and commercial activities based on USDC.
According to Forbes, ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, released a report forecasting that Bitcoin’s market capitalization will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 63% over the next five years—rising from its current level of nearly $2 trillion to $16 trillion by 2030. The report states, “Bitcoin is maturing into the leader of a new institutional asset class.” ARK Invest analysts project that Bitcoin will drive the broader cryptocurrency market to reach $28 trillion by 2030 (up from roughly $2.8 trillion today). “Smart contract networks and pure digital currency markets may grow at an approximate annual rate of 61% to reach $28 trillion by 2030, with Bitcoin capturing 70% of the market share and the remainder dominated by smart contract platforms such as Ethereum and Solana.”
According to an official announcement, Binance Alpha Box is now live, powered by the latest Alpha Box model. The airdrop pool consists of tokens from three projects: Ark of Panda (AOP), Rekt (REKT), and Yei Finance (CLO). Users holding at least 240 Binance Alpha Points can claim the token airdrop once via the Alpha Events page. Upon claiming, users will be assigned to one of three reward tiers, receiving either 715, 860, or 2,860 AOP tokens; 192,307,700, 230,769,230, or 769,230,770 REKT tokens; or 335, 400, or 1,335 CLO tokens. Rewards are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. If all rewards are not fully claimed, the point threshold automatically decreases by 5 points every 5 minutes. Claiming the airdrop consumes 15 Binance Alpha Points, and users must confirm their claim within 24 hours—otherwise, the claim will be forfeited.