Circle says it kept 7 cents of each USDC revenue dollar in first half

Circle issued a breakdown of where its revenue goes, saying it kept about 7 cents of net profit for each dollar earned in the first half of 2026 after paying partners and funding its own operations. Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi published the figures in an Oct. 16 blog post titled "The Economics of USDC and Why Our Partners Win."

The USDC issuer reported about $1.4 billion in revenue and reserve income for the six months. Of that, $819 million, or roughly 59 cents per dollar, went to distribution partners and transaction costs. Another $473 million, about 34 cents per dollar, was reinvested in the business, covering licenses, bank relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance, new products and blockchain integrations. Circle kept about $103 million, or seven cents per dollar, as net profit.

Razzaghi presented the split as an answer to newer stablecoin issuers that argue established companies hold too much of a stablecoin's income and charge too much for redemptions. He did not name any competitor. Unchained reported that more than 140 companies, including Coinbase, Visa and Stripe, had backed Open USD, a stablecoin from Open Standard that would give partners all of its reserve earnings minus a small management fee.

"Circle shares the majority of USDC's economics with the partners that drive its adoption," Razzaghi wrote. He described pitches to hand partners a "substantial majority" of issuer income as offering "a stablecoin that distributes everything but funds nothing." In the post, he said that without spending on licensing, banking and liquidity, "a stablecoin is not a digital dollar; it is a token."

The arrangement ties a partner's share of reserve income to the USDC balances it attracts and holds. Razzaghi pointed to Coinbase's second-quarter results, which showed a record $20 billion in average USDC held across its products, up 44% year over year. He also cited Binance, which signed a five-year commercial deal with Circle in September and bought $100 million of its stock. More than 150 partners have an economic stake in USDC's growth, the post said.

Circle earns most of its revenue from the assets backing USDC, which include cash and US government securities. Exchanges, wallets and payment companies that bring in users and hold USDC receive a share of the income those balances produce, which makes distribution a large expense but also gives major partners an incentive to promote the token.

On redemptions, Razzaghi said every Circle customer can redeem USDC for free over standard bank rails, which settle in up to two business days. Free, near-instant redemption is available to Circle Payments Network users and to customers who qualify through Arc, Circle Mint or Circle Wallets, CryptoSlate reported. He said Circle pays for that service by keeping cash at partner banks, where it earns less than it would on Treasuries.

Circle said USDC processed more than $36 trillion in on-chain transaction volume in the first half of 2026. By its count, USDC handled about 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier. The issuer said it minted and redeemed more than $315 billion of the token over the six months, about $1.7 billion a day, and that second-quarter minting and redemptions reached $170 billion, up 105% from a year earlier.

The company listed more than 55 licenses and regulatory registrations, relationships with more than 25 banking partners, native USDC deployments across more than 35 blockchains, reserves held in a government money market fund managed by BlackRock and custodied at BNY, and compliance operations covering 185 countries.

CoinDesk reported that rivals are courting Circle's partners with bigger revenue shares, putting pressure on the economics of its existing arrangements. Crypto Briefing said Open USD's pitch centers on free minting and redemption and passing reserve income directly to participants.

Circle is scheduled to report third-quarter financial results on Nov. 4, giving investors another look at how distribution costs change as the issuer expands partnerships and offers faster redemptions to more businesses. The Oct. 16 post did not say how much of the $819 million went to partners and how much went to transaction costs.