Circle’s stablecoin is USDC (USD Coin), a digital dollar token that Circle Internet Group issues one-for-one against cash and short-term US Treasuries, redeemable for $1 at any time. Circle itself has traded publicly on the NYSE as CRCL since June 2025, making it the first stablecoin issuer to go public.

Key takeaways

  • Circle issues USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by cash, insured deposits and short-dated Treasuries rather than a promise alone.
  • USDC circulation hit $73.3 billion as of June 30, 2026, up 19% year-over-year, according to Circle’s Q2 2026 results.
  • Circle went public on June 5, 2025 on the NYSE under ticker CRCL, pricing at $31 a share before closing its first day up 168% at $83.23.
  • Circle’s revenue comes from reserve interest, not USDC fees — $668 million of its $701 million in Q2 2026 revenue was reserve income earned on Treasuries backing USDC.
  • The GENIUS Act and a new OCC trust charter now put USDC’s backing under direct federal oversight, tightening the rules Circle must follow to keep the $1 peg credible.

What Circle is and how it relates to USDC

Circle Internet Group is the company; USDC is the stablecoin it issues. Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville founded Circle in Boston in October 2013, originally as a consumer payments app, before pivoting toward stablecoin infrastructure. In 2018, Circle co-launched USDC with Coinbase through a joint venture called Centre, which set the token’s technical standards and governance.

Centre dissolved in 2023, and Circle became USDC’s sole issuer. That consolidation set up Circle’s next move: on June 5, 2025, Circle Internet Group went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, the first time a stablecoin issuer had listed on a major US exchange. The IPO priced 34 million shares at $31 each, raising roughly $1.1 billion at an $8.06 billion fully diluted valuation — and shares closed their first trading day up 168%, at $83.23, after triggering several volatility halts.

How USDC actually holds its $1 peg

USDC’s price is supposed to be the most boring number attached to it: one token, one dollar, always. That holds because Circle backs every USDC in circulation with liquid reserves and lets anyone redeem a token for $1 directly. Circle holds those reserves through the Circle Reserve Fund, an SEC-registered government money market fund managed by BlackRock and custodied at BNY Mellon, split across cash, short-dated US Treasury bills and overnight Treasury repurchase agreements.

That structure is what lets arbitrage do the work of keeping USDC’s market price near $1 — buy cheap, redeem at par, sell the difference — a mechanism we break down in full in how stablecoins hold their $1 peg. USDC has stayed within roughly 0.1% of $1 through 2026’s market stress, a track record that owes entirely to the reserve being real, liquid and verifiable rather than algorithmic.

Circle’s business model: interest, not transaction fees

Circle doesn’t charge users to mint, hold or redeem USDC. Instead, it earns interest on the Treasuries and cash sitting behind the stablecoin — and that interest is most of the company’s income. In Q2 2026, Circle reported $701 million in total revenue and reserve income, of which $668 million was reserve income alone, against USDC circulation of $73.3 billion at quarter’s end. Net income for the quarter was $48 million.

That dependency on reserve yield is also Circle’s biggest structural risk: income rises and falls with short-term interest rates, and the GENIUS Act bans Circle from passing any of that yield directly to USDC holders. The practical effect, which we covered in whether stablecoins are replacing banks, is that yield-seeking capital has moved into DeFi products built around USDC rather than the token itself.

How regulation now constrains Circle’s stablecoin

Two regulatory moves in 2026 tightened the rules Circle operates under. First, the GENIUS Act — the federal framework for US payment stablecoins — requires permitted issuers to hold 100% reserves in cash, insured deposits and short-dated Treasuries, redeem tokens at par within two business days, and keep reserves in bankruptcy-remote accounts. We detail the full framework in what the GENIUS Act means for stablecoins.

Second, on July 10, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Circle final approval to establish Circle National Trust, a federally chartered national trust bank. As we explained in our breakdown of Circle’s national trust bank charter, the charter covers custody and fiduciary services rather than deposit-taking or lending, and USDC issuance itself still runs through Circle’s existing entities — but it pulls Circle’s custody infrastructure directly under OCC supervision, ahead of competitors Ripple, Paxos and Fidelity.

Circle beyond USDC: the Arc blockchain

Circle isn’t standing still on USDC alone. On September 16, 2026, Circle launched Arc, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for stablecoin payments, foreign exchange and tokenized assets, where USDC itself pays network gas fees. Arc launched with more than 100 founding validators, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard and the DTCC, signaling that Circle is positioning USDC as settlement infrastructure for institutions, not just a trading-pair token on crypto exchanges.

Frequently asked questions

Is Circle’s stablecoin USDC safe?

USDC is backed by cash, insured bank deposits and short-dated US Treasuries held in the Circle Reserve Fund, managed by BlackRock and custodied at BNY Mellon. Under the GENIUS Act, Circle must redeem USDC at par within two business days and keep reserves bankruptcy-remote. USDC has traded within about 0.1% of $1 through 2026, though no stablecoin carries government deposit insurance.

What’s the difference between Circle and USDC?

Circle Internet Group is the public company (NYSE: CRCL); USDC is the stablecoin it issues. Circle also runs related infrastructure, including the Circle Reserve Fund backing USDC and the Arc blockchain, but USDC itself is just the token.

Does Circle pay interest on USDC?

No. The GENIUS Act bans permitted US stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly to holders. Circle keeps the interest its reserves earn as company revenue — $668 million of it in Q2 2026 alone — rather than distributing it to USDC holders.

Is Circle Internet Group publicly traded?

Yes. Circle listed on the NYSE under the ticker CRCL on June 5, 2025, becoming the first stablecoin issuer to go public, after pricing its IPO at $31 a share.

Sources

This article is educational and not investment, legal or tax advice. Do your own research.