Stock price rises over 35%! Circle's financial report exceeds expectations: USDC circulation surges by 72%

By: rootdata|2026/02/27 22:11:30
0
Share
copy

Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher

On February 25, stablecoin issuer Circle (NYSE: CRCL) released its financial report for the fourth quarter and the full year of fiscal 2025.

The report shows that the company's total revenue and reserve income for the fourth quarter reached $770 million, a year-on-year increase of 77%, exceeding market expectations.

As a result, CRCL's stock price rose over 35% on Wednesday.

Specifically, the growth of its stablecoin USDC became the core highlight of this financial report. By the end of the year, the circulation of USDC had reached $75.3 billion, a 72% increase compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, network activity showed explosive growth, with on-chain transaction volume reaching $11.9 trillion in the fourth quarter, a year-on-year increase of 247%.

In terms of revenue composition, reserve income remains the backbone of the company's revenue, contributing $733 million in Q4, a year-on-year increase of 69%.

Although market yields decreased by 68 basis points during the period, this pressure was offset by the significant expansion of USDC's average circulation.

Meanwhile, non-interest income reached $37 million, mainly due to steady accumulation from subscription services and transaction fees.

Looking at the overall performance for the year, the company's total revenue and reserve income amounted to $2.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 64%.

Although the continuing operations recorded a net loss of $70 million, this was primarily influenced by a one-time stock compensation expense of $424 million incurred during the IPO process.

Since this expense is non-cash in nature, excluding it, the company's core business has shown profitability. Adjusted EBITDA reached $582 million, doubling year-on-year, indicating that operational leverage effects are gradually becoming apparent.

In terms of strategic layout, Circle is gradually transforming from a pure stablecoin issuer to a provider of internet financial infrastructure, strengthening its underlying position in real-time trading through various technological initiatives.

The report shows that the Arc public chain public test network is operating stably, with the final confirmation time for transactions reduced to about half a second, and total transaction volume has exceeded 166 million, with the mainnet expected to officially launch within the year.

In terms of payment networks, the ecosystem of Circle Payments Network continues to expand. Currently, 55 financial institutions have officially joined, with another 74 in the qualification review stage, and the annualized transaction volume over the past 30 days has reached $5.7 billion.

Notably, the strategic partnership with Polymarket further highlights the value of USDC in emerging fields. As one of the largest prediction market platforms globally, Polymarket will gradually switch all bets and settlements to native USDC.

This cooperation not only eliminates bridging risks and enhances capital efficiency but also directly translates user growth in prediction markets into long-term increases in USDC circulation and transaction volume.

Additionally, Circle is also gradually penetrating the traditional financial ecosystem. The company has not only achieved around-the-clock settlement cooperation with Visa but has also broadened application scenarios through integration with Intuit's platform.

In terms of regulatory compliance, the company received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank in December 2025, further consolidating its compliance first-mover advantage under the GENIUS Act framework.

The secondary market has responded positively to this. Technically, before the financial report was released, the company's stock price had rebounded from a low point and stabilized above the 7-day and 30-day moving averages.

On the institutional side, ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, has repeatedly increased its holdings in Circle stock during the market correction, with the latest position at approximately 4.14 million shares, valued at about $261 million.

Mizuho Securities upgraded CRCL's rating from underweight to neutral at the end of January, setting a target price of $77. The institution believes that Polymarket's growth will directly drive the expansion of USDC's scale and revenue.

However, Circle still needs to face potential headwinds in the future.

On one hand, the downward trend in interest rates may continue to pressure reserve income, as reflected in the decline in yields in the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, the competitive landscape for stablecoins is changing. The USAT stablecoin launched by Tether and issued by Anchorage Digital is targeting the U.S. institutional market and is seen as USDC's first substantial regulatory competitor in the domestic market, which may lead to some diversion in compliance market share.

Moreover, the overall volatility in the crypto market and macro cycles will still pose uncertainties for the growth rate of circulation. According to Coinglass data, the current total market capitalization of stablecoins is approximately $264 billion, with USDC accounting for about 28.5%. Although USDC leads the industry in growth rate, Tether still holds a dominant position.

Investors should pay special attention to the management's expectations and execution plans for the future. The company has provided clear guidance for fiscal year 2026:

  • USDC circulation aims for a compound annual growth rate of 40% over several years;
  • Other income (subscriptions, services, and transaction fees) is expected to be between $150 million and $170 million;
  • RLDC profit margin (profit after deducting distribution and transaction costs) is maintained in the high range of 38% to 40%;
  • Adjusted operating expenses are expected to be between $570 million and $585 million.

These guidelines also reflect the management's confidence in sustained scale expansion, cost control, and accelerated growth of non-interest income.

Additionally, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire mentioned AI agents and their payment needs multiple times during the earnings call.

He stated that we are about to enter a world where there may be billions or even hundreds of billions of AI agents interacting and performing economic functions on the internet.

These AI agents require programmable digital dollars and open infrastructure to enable autonomous trading, and Circle's products are built for this purpose.

Specifically, Circle is heavily investing in agent-based payment infrastructure.

Currently, Circle Gateway has entered the testing network phase, supporting AI agents to autonomously initiate cross-chain USDC transactions, with a single transaction cost as low as $0.00001 (extremely low fees, suitable for micropayments and high-frequency machine-to-machine transactions).

The meeting also mentioned that currently about 99% of agent-based payments use USDC, thanks to Circle's cross-chain deployment and participation in agent payment standards (such as the x402 standard, in collaboration with companies like Google).

Overall, this financial report validates Circle's strategic execution in a complex regulatory environment, while the new story of AI + payments expands the company's valuation imagination space. Despite facing yield volatility and challenges from emerging competitors, Circle continues to make strides on the path of "financial infrastructure" and "compliance expansion."

-- Price

--

You may also like

Cyber Taoist Fortune Teller: Fake Taoist, AI Fortune Telling, and Northeastern Metaphysics History

At the end of the universe is Iron Mountain, at the end of mysticism is AI.

Bloomberg: Stablecoin Payments Emerge as Crypto VC's Newest Favorite Thing

Under the push of the pro-crypto policies by the Trump administration, the market's enthusiasm for stablecoins reached an all-time high last year.

BeatSwap is evolving towards a full-stack Web3 infrastructure, covering the entire lifecycle of IP rights.

The core product "Space" is scheduled to launch in Q2 2026, driven by SocialFi


BeatSwap, a global Web3 Intellectual Property (IP) infrastructure project, is attempting to overcome the current fragmentation limitations of the Web3 ecosystem, building a full-stack system that covers the entire lifecycle of IP rights.


Currently, most Web3 projects are still in the stage of functional fragmentation, often focusing only on a single aspect, such as IP asset tokenization, transaction functionality, or a simple incentive model. This structural dispersion has become a key bottleneck hindering the industry's scale application.


BeatSwap's approach is more integrated, integrating multiple core modules into the same system, including:


· IP authentication and on-chain registration

· Authorization-based revenue sharing mechanism

· User-engagement-driven incentive system

· Transaction and liquidity infrastructure


Through the above integration, the platform builds an end-to-end closed-loop path, allowing IP rights to complete a full cycle of "creation, use, and monetization" within the same ecosystem.


Expanding from Web3 to a broader market: Restructuring the music industry's supply-demand structure


BeatSwap is not limited to existing crypto users but is attempting to take the global music industry as a starting point, actively creating new market demand. Its core strategies include:


Exploring and incubating music creators (Artist discovery)

Building a fan community

Igniting IP-centric content consumption demand


The current global music industry is valued at around $260 billion, with over 2 billion digital music users. This means that the potential market corresponding to the tokenization and financialization of IP far exceeds the traditional crypto user base.


In this context, BeatSwap positions itself at the intersection of "real-world content demand" and "on-chain infrastructure," attempting to bridge the structural gap between content production and financial flow.


"Space" to Launch in Q2 2026: Building the Core of SocialFi


BeatSwap's upcoming core product "Space" is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2026. This product is defined as the SocialFi layer in the ecosystem, aiming to directly connect creators with users and achieve deep integration with other platform modules.


Key designs include:

A fan-centric interactive mechanism

Exposure and distribution logic based on $BTX staking

User paths connected to DeFi and liquidity structures


Thus, a complete user behavior loop is formed within the platform: Discovery → Participation → Consumption → Rewards → Trading


$BTX Token Mechanism: Evolving from an Incentive Tool to a Value Carrier


$BTX is designed to be a core utility asset within the ecosystem, rather than just a simple incentive token, with its value directly tied to platform activity and IP use cases.


Main features include:


· Yield distribution based on on-chain authorized actions

· Value reflection based on IP usage and user engagement dynamics

· Support for staking and DeFi participation mechanisms

· Value growth driven by ecosystem expansion


With the increased frequency of IP use, the utility and value support of $BTX will enhance simultaneously, helping alleviate the "disconnect between value and utility" issue present in traditional Web3 token models to some extent.


Accelerating Global Exchange Layout: Enhancing Liquidity and Accessibility


Currently, $BTX has been listed on several mainstream exchanges, including:


Binance Alpha

Gate

MEXC

OKX Boost


As the launch of "Space" approaches, BeatSwap is actively pursuing more exchange listings to further enhance liquidity and global accessibility, laying a foundation for future market expansion.


Beyond Web3: Aiming for a Larger-Scale Integration of Content and Finance Markets


BeatSwap's goal is no longer limited to the traditional Web3 narrative but aims to target over 2 billion digital music users and a trillion KRW-scale content market.


By integrating content creators, users, capital, and liquidity into a blockchain framework centered around IP rights, BeatSwap is striving to build a next-generation infrastructure focused on "IP tokenization."


Conclusion


BeatSwap integrates IP authentication, authorization distribution, incentive mechanism, transaction system, and market construction to establish a unified structure that bridges the full lifecycle path of IP rights.


With the launch of the Q2 2026 "Space," the project is expected to become a key infrastructure connecting content and finance in the IP-RWA (Real World Assets) track.


Mag 7 Evaporates $2 Trillion | Rewire News Morning Edition

Market First Pricing Yearly Rate Hike

Losing $19K per Coin Mined, Bitcoin Mining Firms Collective AI Defection

These mining companies are increasingly resembling data center operators, just happen to be mining Bitcoin.

Morning Report | Tom Lee predicts that the cryptocurrency winter will end in April; xStocks introduces a new on-chain private equity fund; Sui mainnet upgraded to V1.68.1

Overview of Important Market Events on March 29

Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

Read more