# Circle **Circle Internet Group** (NYSE: CRCL) issues **USDC**, the second-largest [[Stablecoin]] after [[Tether]]'s USDT. It was founded in Boston in October 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville. Circle sells USDC as the regulated, fully reserved dollar token. The [[GENIUS Act]], signed July 18, 2025, wrote that model into federal law, and in 2026 Circle became a nationally chartered bank. ## The numbers | | | |---|---| | IPO | Priced June 4, 2025 at **$31** (above the $27–28 range), raising about $1.1B; first trade June 5, opening near $69, closing about $83 (up ~168%) | | USDC in circulation | **$73.3B** at June 30, 2026; about **$74B** in early October, against USDT's ~$184B (about 24% and 60% of all stablecoins) | | Q2 2026 | Revenue and reserve income $701M (+7%); net income from continuing operations $48M; adjusted EBITDA $143M | | Reserves | Mostly in the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered money-market fund run by [[BlackRock]]; monthly attestations | The business is interest. Circle earns the yield on the Treasuries backing USDC, so its revenue falls as rates fall; its reserve return dropped to 3.5% in Q2 2026. ## The Coinbase deal Much of that yield goes to [[Coinbase]]. Under their 2023 agreement Coinbase takes 100% of the reserve income on USDC held on its platform and **50%** of the rest. On the Q2 2026 call Circle said the deal had been renewed on the same terms through 2029 (one source). ## Becoming a bank The [[OCC]] gave conditional approval on December 12, 2025, and **final approval on July 10, 2026**, for First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating as "Circle National Trust." One change from the plan: it will not hold the USDC reserves for now, and starts with digital-asset custody. USDC issuance moves to a New York limited-purpose trust company. ## 2026 expansion - **Arc**, Circle's own blockchain with USDC as its fee token, launched its mainnet in mid-September 2026. Its validators are permissioned: BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered and others. - **[[Binance]]** invested **$100 million** on September 22, 2026 (1.24 million shares at $80.84) alongside a five-year USDC distribution deal. Binance is the exchange whose founder Trump pardoned in October 2025. - Circle agreed to buy the Singapore payments firm Tazapay (about $400M, one source). ## Politics Circle was a founding donor to [[Fairshake PAC]], the crypto super PAC (Wikipedia gives $1M; one source). No figure was found for Allaire's personal giving or Circle's lobbying spend. ## See Also - [[Stablecoin]] · [[Tether]] · [[GENIUS Act]] · [[CLARITY Act]] · [[Coinbase]] - [[Binance]] · [[OCC]] · [[Fairshake PAC]] · [[Cryptocurrency Sector]] · [[Crypto-Political Machine]]