Its explanation follows growing attention on Open USD and its partner-focused incentives. Competition now centers on fees, reserve earnings, and distribution across the stablecoin market.

Circle details how USDC revenue supports partners

Circle chief commercial officer Kash Razzaghi published the explanation on October 16 without naming competitors. However, the timing follows Open USD’s expansion across Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure.

Circle reported approximately $1.4 billion in first-half 2026 revenue. Distribution partners and transaction costs received $819 million, representing 59% of the total.

The company allocated another $473 million, or 34%, to operations and infrastructure. Those expenses covered licensing, banking relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance, and blockchain development. Circle reported net profit equal to 7% of revenue.

According to Circle, more than 150 partners participate in USDC’s economic model. Participants include exchanges, wallets, banks, and payment companies.

Circle also defended its redemption arrangements against the emerging competition. Customers can redeem USDC through standard banking channels without fees, with settlement taking up to two business days.

Meanwhile, Circle Payments Network participants and businesses building on its platform can redeem without charges through near-real-time, around-the-clock settlement. Circle said first-quarter redemptions reached $71.8 billion, roughly 90% of circulating supply at that time.

OUSD challenges stablecoin fees and reserve earnings

The Open Standard Consortium introduced OUSD on June 30 with free minting and redemption, without volume limits. It also offered partners reserve earnings after deducting a small management fee.

Stripe integrated OUSD throughout its stablecoin stack on September 30. Stripe highlighted zero minting and burning fees plus rewards linked to activity and balances.

OUSD remains substantially smaller than USDC. CoinMarketCap figures put USDC supply near $72.6 billion, while OUSD represents roughly 1% of that amount.

Still, OUSD’s launch prompted market concerns about Circle’s competitive position. Circle shares fell approximately 13% following the announcement and its proposed reserve-revenue sharing structure.

Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire welcomed competition around the launch. Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick identified potential pressure on Circle’s business, while Clear Street’s Owen Lau considered the selloff excessive.

Lau cited consortium-backed USDG from Paxos, which had reached only approximately $3 billion in supply. The OUSD consortium counts over 140 supporting companies, including Stripe, Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock.

Coinbase and Binance lead USDC distribution rewards

Although Circle distributes rewards across numerous partners, larger distributors receive greater payments. Circle cited Coinbase’s second-quarter results.

Coinbase averaged $20 billion in USDC across its products, exceeding 30% of quarter-end supply. Circle said Coinbase captured roughly half of USDC’s economic rewards over the preceding year.

Binance also maintains a major commercial relationship with Circle. The exchange invested $100 million in Circle and signed a five-year promotional agreement.

Under that agreement, Circle pays Binance a monthly fee to promote USDC. These arrangements show how distribution agreements shape Circle’s revenue allocation as OUSD pursues the same partners.

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Circle closed nearly flat that day, up 0.05% to $63.28, meaning the stake was worth around $17.3 million. According to disclosures, Ark Invest sits ninth in ARKK’s holdings with a 3.68% weight worth $223.4 million. Ark limits any one position to 10% of a fund, so it’s diversified across its ETFs, and there’s still room to add. In the second quarter, total revenue and reserve income for Circle reached $701 million, a 7% increase year-over-year. The figure was less than the $712 million to $718 million analysts had modeled. CRCL dropped about 3% in premarket trading before bouncing back.

Ark Invest makes huge Circle and SpaceX stock buys

According to reports, adjusted earnings were 18 cents a share, versus a consensus of 16 cents, and net income from continuing operations was $48 million. Adjusted EBITDA was up 8% to $143 million. Total USDC in circulation grew 19% to $73.3 billion, with onchain transaction volume increasing 151% to $14.8 trillion. Circle’s reserve income, which is the money it earns on the assets backing USDC, was $668 million, up 5% from a year ago.

However, the yield on those reserves fell 66 basis points. Circle is sitting on more reserves and making less from each dollar of them. Circle’s Arc blockchain is scheduled to launch on the public mainnet on September 16, with BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard listed among founding validators. Ark Invest bought 181,830 SpaceX shares in ARKK, the Ark Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ), ARKW, and the Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX), amounting to a ~$20 million stake.

That order came as SpaceX dropped 13.6% to $108.27, below its $135 IPO price. Earnings coverage from Cryptopolitan said revenue had soared 92% year over year to $7.8 billion, along with a $541 million net loss. Investors were spooked by spending after capital expenditures rose to $18.4 billion, a sixfold increase in the quarter, mostly to build out AI infrastructure. SpaceX expects $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030, or possibly 2029, ahead of an earlier 2031 target, Elon Musk told the call.

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The limited-purpose trust charter places Circle’s stablecoin operations under a regulator widely regarded as one of the strictest state financial supervisors in the United States.

The approval extends Circle’s regulatory presence across the country as the company builds a broader framework for USDC. Circle, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the CRCL ticker, maintains its global headquarters in New York.

Circle Builds on Its Existing NYDFS License

The charter is not Circle’s first authorization from the New York regulator. In 2015, the company became the first business to receive the NYDFS BitLicense, beginning a regulatory relationship that has continued for more than a decade.

Circle co-founder, chairman and chief executive Jeremy Allaire highlighted that history while commenting on the latest approval.

“This charter reflects over a decade of regulatory commitment and positions USDC within a strong, respected framework as digital dollars become central to the global financial system,” Allaire said in the statement.

He also described NYDFS as “an international standard setter for digital asset regulation.”

NYDFS Maintains Strict Stablecoin Standards

NYDFS oversees financial institutions connected to Wall Street and other global markets, giving its licensing framework significant weight across traditional finance and digital assets.

In June, the agency proposed additional reserve cap requirements for custodians while seeking to align its rules with the GENIUS Act signed by President Donald Trump in 2025.

The federal stablecoin law allows issuers with less than $10 billion in outstanding supply to operate under state authorization when state rules are substantially similar to federal requirements, as determined by the Treasury Department.

Acting NYDFS Superintendent Kaitlin Asrow said in June that New York’s rules “have protected New Yorkers and facilitated a stable market.”

Circle Adds Another Major 2026 Approval

The New York charter follows other regulatory and institutional developments for Circle in 2026. On July 10, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval for Circle National Trust, a national trust bank authorized to custody digital assets.

Circle also expanded USDC’s institutional access in June when BNY added the stablecoin to its digital asset custody platform. The arrangement allows clients to mint and redeem USDC through the bank.

USDC’s market capitalization stands near $73.7 billion, making it the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether, which holds roughly $186 billion. USDC ranks second behind Tether in stablecoin capitalization.

CRCL stock price. Source: Google Finance.

Circle shares traded near $61 on July 31, according to Google Finance data. CRCL remained within a 52-week range of $49.90 to $189.92 after a volatile year for the newly listed company.

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The transaction includes more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide, according to Circle’s announcement. The intellectual property covers blockchain systems alongside banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification, and secure cloud operations.

Circle did not disclose the purchase price. The companies also did not state whether IBM retained licensing rights to any patents included in the transaction.

Circle General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Sarah Wilson said IBM has long played a pioneering role in technological innovation. She added that intellectual property is essential to Circle’s “mission and expanding adoption of on-chain infrastructure.”

Circle Expands Patent Support Across Products

Circle said the acquired portfolio will support several parts of its existing business. These include the USDC stablecoin, Circle Payments Network, Arc enterprise blockchain, and financial tools designed for artificial intelligence agents.

The company has developed its AI-focused services through Agent Stack products. Circle and IBM also said they intend to explore additional commercial opportunities together following the patent acquisition.

The deal changes the ranking of major US blockchain patent holders. IBM previously held one of the country’s largest portfolios in the sector. A December 2025 PatSnap study listed IBM with 790 patents, matching Advanced New Technologies and Bank of America.

Circle’s purchase of most of IBM’s blockchain patents puts the company above those rivals. Circle received its first patent in December 2023 for technology covering parallel blockchain data processing.

The company had also joined the LOT Network, an organization designed to protect participating businesses from patent-assertion entities.

Circle and IBM Shares Rise in Premarket Trading

Circle shares gained 2.5% in premarket trading after the announcement, while IBM shares increased 1.6%.

The gains came during a difficult period for Circle stock. Yahoo Finance data showed CRCL had fallen 66% over the previous 12 months to $62.36. IBM had declined 18% to $214.19 as of July 27.

Circle shares experienced sharp price swings during 2025, moving from about $81 to a peak near $293 before surrendering most of those gains.

Patent Deal Follows Circle Trust Bank Approval

The acquisition follows Circle’s expansion into regulated financial infrastructure. On July 10, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted final approval for Circle National Trust, a national trust bank that will provide digital asset custody services.

In May, Circle raised $222 million through Arc token sales before the blockchain’s launch, giving the network a $3 billion valuation.

The IBM portfolio includes intellectual property supporting Circle’s stablecoin payments, enterprise blockchain operations, and broader infrastructure activities across regulated digital finance markets in the United States.

The post Circle Acquires IBM Blockchain Patents to Lead US Patent Holdings first appeared on Coinfea.

The latest transaction highlights Solana’s role in moving dollar liquidity across crypto markets. Traders often monitor USDC minting activity as a measure of demand for on-chain dollars, although gross issuance differs sharply from the amount currently circulating on the blockchain.

USDC supports trade settlement, lending, derivatives, and tokenized real-world asset transactions. Fresh issuance does not automatically signal higher market value, but sustained minting alongside trading activity can reflect demand for blockchain-based dollar liquidity.

Latest mint extends Solana issuance trend

Onchain Lens identified the receiving Solana address as 7VHUFJHWu2CuExkJcJrzhQPJ2oygupTWkL2A2For4BmE. The July 13 mint extends a pattern seen throughout 2026.

In April, Circle issued $3.25 billion in USDC on Solana within one week. That activity occurred through thirteen separate tranches of 250 million tokens, showing the scale and frequency of issuance moving through the network.

Solana has become one of crypto’s busiest venues for stablecoin settlement. Decentralized exchanges including Raydium, Jupiter, and Orca also process large trading volumes, while USDC has accounted for a substantial share of stablecoins held on the chain.

Gross issuance differs from circulating supply

The $68.26 billion figure represents total USDC minted on Solana during 2026, not the amount currently available on the network. Tokens can later be redeemed for dollars, burned, or transferred across blockchains as liquidity moves.

DefiLlama data places current USDC supply on Solana near $7.3 billion. Total USDC circulating across all supported blockchains stands close to $73.5 billion.

That means Solana’s current USDC supply equals about 10.7% of the amount minted on the network this year. Gross issuance is also roughly 9.35 times larger than the present circulating balance.

The difference does not indicate that most tokens disappeared. It reflects active recycling through redemptions, burns, transfers, and settlement activity.

Circle links minting with redemptions

Circle has repeatedly emphasized that issuance must be assessed alongside redemptions and circulating supply.

“USDC is a digital dollar backed 100% by highly liquid cash and cash-equivalent assets and is always redeemable 1:1 for US dollars.”

Circle’s transparency reports track issuance, redemptions, and supply separately. The company says reserves mainly consist of cash and short-term US Treasury securities.

Circle has also expanded institutional access. BNY became the first partner announced to offer institutional custody and direct USDC minting and redemption, while Standard Chartered supports network access for institutional investors. USDC remains the second-largest stablecoin by market value behind Tether’s USDT.

These institutional arrangements connect traditional custody services with blockchain settlement, giving approved market participants direct routes for minting, redeeming, holding, and transferring USDC across supported networks.

The post Circle mints USDC on Solana as 2026 issuance reaches $68.26 billion first appeared on Coinfea.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave its final approval to Circle, allowing the company to run a national trust bank carrying the legal name First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. The regulator first gave a conditional go-ahead in December of 2025. This move brings USDC custody under direct federal supervision for the first time. The new entity will do business as Circle National Trust, according to Circle’s announcement. The bank will only handle custody of digital assets for Circle and its affiliates, and it will not take deposits or make consumer loans the way a commercial bank does.

Circle receives final approval from the OCC

According to reports, Circle’s business plan includes provisions to extend custody later to a limited set of institutional clients such as banks and regulated derivatives firms, but only “depending on demand.” Circle’s USDC is backed by cash and short-term US government securities, which are currently in the custody of Circle’s existing regulated entities. Moving them under the trust bank would put reserve management under federal oversight, but Circle has not said when, or whether, it will take that step.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s co-founder, chairman and CEO, said federal supervision gives financial institutions “clarity and confidence” to build on public blockchains. New services that Circle intends to offer will be subject to further regulatory approvals and operational work before they can go live. Following the news of the OCC approval, Circle’s stock shot up as much as 15% pre-market. Cryptopolitan reported that apart from Circle, the OCC handed conditional charters to five crypto firms in December 2025, including Ripple, Paxos, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Assets.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould stated that the new entrants are a benefit as they “provide access to new products, services and sources of credit to consumers.” The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) is considering taking legal action against the OCC. It argues that crypto trust banks could offer bank-like products without carrying the same obligations as full-service lenders. Other banking groups have also asked the regulator to narrow the policy, citing financial stability and consumer protection.

Despite this pushback, Nomura’s Laser Digital and Sony Bank’s Connectia Trust have since secured conditional approvals of their own. The OCC’s public docket shows that there are pending applications from firms including Morgan Stanley’s digital trust arm and Revolut’s US bank.

The post Circle secures final approval to establish its national trust bank first appeared on Coinfea.

Circle said the service allows for institutional use cases such as on-chain settlement, treasury, and liquidity management, with support for payment-related functions in the future. “Digital assets are becoming an increasingly important component of global financial infrastructure, and institutional clients are seeking the same levels of trust and governance that underpin traditional markets. With this launch, we are extending those standards into a rapidly evolving segment of the financial system,” said Standard Chartered’s CEO, Roberto Hoornweg.

Standard Chartered to open up the service to users in Dubai

The timing comes as more TradFi giants are increasingly dabbling in the stablecoin market amid growing institutional demand. As recently as June 30, Cryptopolitan reported that over 140 financial companies have joined to launch a shared stablecoin called Open USD (OUSD). The founding members include Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, American Express, and other partners such as Standard Chartered.

Circle took a hit following the news, falling as much as 15%, as many viewed OUSD as a major rival challenging USDC’s business model. Circle charges minting and redemption fees for USDC. OUSD launches with zero minting and redemption fees. The reserve yield is distributed among all partners, which serves as an incentive to use the stablecoin. Despite a 41% decline over the past month, Cathie Wood’s investment firm, Ark Invest, continues to bet on Circle’s shares (CRCL).

On Wednesday, Ark purchased a total of 287,609 CRCL for roughly $17.8 million across its ARKK, ARKW, and ARKF funds. USDC remains the second-largest dollar stablecoin with over $73 billion in market cap. Analysts at Bernstein maintain an Outperform rating for CRCL despite the OUSD announcement. Bernstein keeps its price target for Coinbase shares at $190, representing a 203% increase from the current market pricing.

The post Standard Chartered launches direct minting of USDC first appeared on Coinfea.

The move follows Japan’s approval of USDC for corporate use and is intended to reduce settlement delays that currently take a few business days through traditional banking channels. Circle Internet Financial, the Boston-based stablecoin issuer, announced the partnership with Japan’s financial giant Nomura Holdings on Thursday. The agreement states that the companies will roll out the corporate settlement platform in Japan as early as 2027, once the required protocols and regulations are in place.

Circle and Nomura tap Japan’s USDC approval to launch new service

The service will allow businesses to convert Japanese yen into U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin Circle’s USD Coin (USDC). The digital asset will be accessible to companies for cross-border payments to suppliers, for transferring the asset between overseas subsidiaries, and for settling foreign exchange transactions. The project targets Japan’s import, export, and corporate foreign-exchange markets.

According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, Japan’s foreign exchange market recorded an average daily trading volume of approximately $440 billion in 2025. The announcement follows regulatory changes that expanded the use of stablecoins in Japan. According to a CryptoPolitan report, Japan’s Financial Services Agency previously approved USDC under new payment regulations, making it the first recognized U.S. dollar stablecoin authorized for local corporate business.

Following this, the partnership will see Nomura responsible for client onboarding in Japan, managing regulatory compliance needs, and bringing the settlement platform to the existing banking systems in the country. Both firms will spend the year finalizing the banking integrations, strengthening the custody side, and wrapping up the final details of the operating structure in preparation for the planned launch.

In the proposed situation, a corporate customer will convert yen to USDC through the Nomura banking system, and the stablecoins will be transferred through a blockchain network. In a smart contract, these two transactions would then be bound together to complete both sides of the currency conversion process. Circle already has requirements in place to accommodate this kind of community. Built on an open Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin applications, its Arc blockchain also features a foreign exchange engine, StableFX.

The exchange engine allows for atomic payment-versus-payment swaps between pairs of stablecoins without the need for prefunding or bilateral credit arrangements. According to Circle’s technical model, combining currency exchange into a single encrypted transaction bypasses the settlement window in traditional correspondent banking. This means that both the sale and the purchase are carried out simultaneously, rather than at different times. The Circle-Nomura partnership comes as more financial companies move into Japan’s regulated stablecoin market.

The post Circle and Nomura to launch instant global USDC settlement first appeared on Coinfea.

The disruption has persisted for nearly four days, leaving billions in stablecoins inaccessible to users. 

The intervention comes after a major exploit triggered panic withdrawals and exposed weaknesses in Aave’s rate adjustment system.

Liquidity shock triggers prolonged freeze

The crisis began on April 18, 2026, when an attacker used fraudulent rsETH tokens to exploit a vulnerability in KelpDAO’s bridge, borrowing roughly $292 million in real assets. 

The incident quickly shook market confidence and led to a rush for exits. Within 24 hours, more than $6 billion was withdrawn from Aave, marking the largest outflow in the protocol’s history.

Aave’s total value locked dropped sharply from about $25 billion to $17.5 billion during the sell-off. 

While early movers managed to exit, others were left unable to withdraw funds as utilization across core markets surged to near full capacity. 

Estimates indicated that around $3 billion in USDT and $2 billion in USDC became effectively trapped.

Some users attempted to regain liquidity by borrowing against their locked positions and selling borrowed assets at losses ranging between 10% and 25%. 

This reaction added further pressure, increasing borrowing demand and pushing utilization even higher.

Interest rate model fails to stabilize markets

Aave’s borrowing rate for USDC remained capped near 14% during the crisis, which proved insufficient to restore balance. 

The rate failed to attract fresh deposits or encourage borrowers to repay loans. Data showed a gradual decline in both supply and debt, but the changes reflected routine repayments rather than meaningful recovery.

The situation was compounded by the failure of the Slope 2 Risk Oracle, an automated rate adjustment system developed by Chaos Labs. 

The firm had exited Aave earlier in April, leaving the tool without active maintenance. As a result, the protocol lacked a responsive mechanism to adapt to the sudden demand shock.

Market participants noted that borrowers facing steep exit losses were unlikely to respond to relatively low annual rates. 

This dynamic limited the effectiveness of Aave’s existing model during extreme stress conditions.

Circle proposes emergency rate increase

Circle’s chief economist, Gordon Liao, proposed a temporary increase in borrowing rates to as high as 50% to attract new liquidity and break the gridlock. 

He argued that higher yields would incentivize capital inflows from other platforms within hours.

The proposal also includes pausing the automated rate system and shifting control to Aave Labs and LlamaRisk until stability returns. A community vote is expected within a week to determine a longer-term framework.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that the team is working continuously to restore normal conditions. 

Community response remains divided, with some supporting urgent intervention while others warn of added pressure on affected users.

The post Circle steps into Aave governance as USDC liquidity locks at 99% utilization first appeared on Coinfea.

McCollum argued the platform could have frozen the stolen USDC. “Circle permitted this criminal use of its technology and services. These losses would not have occurred, or would have been substantially reduced, had the USDC issuer taken timely action.” McCollum wrote. The lawsuit comes at a time when Circle is aggressively positioning itself for the next phase of global stablecoin competition.

Circle dragged to court over failure to act during crypto theft

The Drift Team claims hackers posed as a legitimate firm for months to gain their confidence. The Drift investor claims Circle had the legal and technical power to halt the April 1 exploit, yet they stood by as North Korean hackers bypassed withdrawal caps to pull off the biggest crypto heist of 2026. Mira Gibb, the legal team for McCollum and other investors, is now pushing for damages, with the amount to be established at trial.

So far, the April 1st attack stands as the year’s most devastating crypto exploit, and the second-largest in Solana’s history. According to the Drift Protocol team, attackers spent six months playing the part of a legitimate quantitative trading firm to build trust before planting a malicious app that dismantled the protocol’s withdrawal safety nets. The exploit also involved durable nonce accounts, allowing attackers to pre-sign transactions and trigger them later.

Drift also characterized the attack as a “highly sophisticated operation.” Nevertheless, aside from Drift’s investors, on-chain analyst ZachXBT slammed Circle for its delayed response, claiming it had six hours to stop over $230 million in USDC from being moved across chains. Moreover, cryptography researcher Specter observed that the hackers felt safe enough to leave the stolen USDC in various wallets for up to 3 hours, clearly betting that Circle wouldn’t pull the trigger on a freeze.

Previously, ZachXBT had also taken issue with Circle for freezing 16 USDC wallets without explanation, describing it as the most “incompetent” move he’d seen in five years of on-chain analysis. Circle later clarified that the action was connected to a sealed U.S. civil case. It had shut down wallets connected to exchanges, casinos, forex brokers, and payment processors, as well as the ckETH Minter Smart Contract operated by the DFINITY Foundation.

However, the difference between the two cases has renewed debate over centralized control of stablecoins, with critics saying Circle should apply its freezing powers consistently across all situations. Additionally, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, in response to the McCallum lawsuit, argued that platforms should freeze stolen funds, even if they lack the authority to do so. He commented, “I hope there’s some precedent set. Either you’re a decentralized protocol and literally do not have the power to freeze, or you’re not, you should be freezing hacked funds.”

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