✓ Official source USDC
Circle says 59 cents of every USDC revenue dollar went to partners and transaction costs in the first half
Summary
Circle said it generated about $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026 and paid about $819 million of it, roughly 59 cents per dollar, to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs, in an Oct. 16 blog post also reported by The Block.
The company said it spent about $473 million, roughly 34 cents per dollar, on licenses, banking relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance, new products and blockchain integrations, and made 7 cents of net profit per dollar of revenue.
The post, written by the head of Circle’s commercial business, pushes back on “new entrants” that say issuers keep too much of the economics and that redemptions are expensive, which The Block described as a response to new stablecoin entrants.
Circle said all its customers can redeem USDC for free through standard rails, settling in up to two business days, and that customers using the Circle Payments Network or building on the Circle Platform can now redeem free in near real time.
Circle also said USDC settled more than $36 trillion in onchain volume in the first half and carried about 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.
Updates
- Update, : Oct. 17: CoinDesk reported that the blog post was written by Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi and said the $473 million Circle spent on operations included about $214 million in stock-based compensation and related costs. CoinDesk framed the post as part of a dispute over who gets the interest earned on stablecoin reserves, as rival networks offer partners a bigger cut.
Key facts
- Circle said Coinbase reported average USDC held in its products hit an all-time high of $20 billion in the second quarter, up 44% year over year.
- Circle said Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement and invested $100 million in Circle in September, and that more than 150 other partners have an economic interest in USDC’s growth.
- Circle said it redeemed $71.8 billion of USDC in the first quarter, roughly 90% of supply at the time, and that combined minting and redemption volume reached $170 billion in the second quarter, up 105% year over year.
- Circle cited more than 55 licenses and registrations, more than 25 partner banks and native deployments on over 35 blockchains.
- The Block said Circle outlined the economics in a Friday blog post, pushing back against new stablecoin entrants that argue existing issuers retain too much revenue and charge too much for redemptions.
- CoinDesk reported that the roughly $473 million in other costs included about $214 million in stock-based compensation and related costs.
- CoinDesk noted that Coinbase, Circle’s largest USDC partner, also backs Open USD alongside Stripe and BlackRock; Open USD, unveiled in June, aims to let businesses mint and redeem without fees and passes reserve income minus a management fee to participants, and its OUSD token is now live.
- CoinDesk said Circle’s post did not name Open USD directly, and that other rivals such as the Paxos-led Global Dollar Network (USDG) also share reserve income with participants.
- CoinDesk quoted Razzaghi: “The costs of redemption, compliance, and resilience don’t disappear just because the issuer declined to pay them.”