Circle Internet Group reported significantly faster growth in USDC usage than in revenue during the second quarter of 2026 as the stablecoin expanded across trading, institutional settlement, payments, tokenized assets, and emerging AI-agent transactions.
USDC onchain transaction volume surged 151% year over year to $14.8 trillion. And USDC in circulation reached $73.3 billion at quarter-end, increasing 19% from the prior-year period.
The transaction-volume increase substantially exceeded the growth in outstanding USDC.
Dividing quarterly onchain volume by ending circulation produces a simplified turnover ratio of approximately 202 times.
The calculation does not use average circulation and should not be interpreted as a formal company metric, but it demonstrates how frequently USDC can be transferred, exchanged, or used for settlement relative to the amount outstanding.
Circle’s financial growth remained considerably slower than the increase in network activity.
Total revenue and reserve income increased 7% to $701 million.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $143 million, producing an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 20.4%.
Reserve income remained Circle’s dominant revenue source.
Reserve income increased 5% to $668 million, representing approximately 95% of total revenue and reserve income.
Other revenue grew 41% to $34 million, supported by higher subscription and services revenue.
The reserve-income result demonstrated Circle’s continuing exposure to interest rates.
Average USDC in circulation increased 25%, but the reserve return rate declined by 66 basis points.
The lower yield substantially offset the financial benefit of holding a larger reserve base.
Circle earns reserve income by investing the assets backing its stablecoins in cash and short-duration financial instruments.
The amount of USDC in circulation affects the size of the reserve base, while prevailing interest rates influence the return earned on those assets.
The quarter showed that substantial circulation growth does not automatically produce equivalent revenue growth when reserve yields decline.
Distribution, transaction, and other costs reached $412 million, increasing only 1%.
Those costs represented approximately 62% of reserve income and almost 59% of total revenue and reserve income.
Distribution expenses reflect payments to partners that support USDC circulation, accessibility, and adoption.
The cost structure means Circle shares a meaningful portion of the economics generated by its reserve assets with exchanges, financial institutions, and other distribution partners.
Net income from continuing operations reached $48 million, improving by $530 million from the prior-year period.
The comparison implies a second-quarter 2025 loss of approximately $482 million.
Circle attributed most of the improvement to lower stock-based compensation following its 2025 initial public offering rather than only to operating growth.
GAAP and adjusted expense trends consequently moved in opposite directions.
Reported operating expenses declined 56% to $254 million because IPO-related stock compensation fell substantially.
Adjusted operating expenses increased 23% to $146 million as Circle continued investing in product development, infrastructure, and AI capabilities.
Those investments include Arc, Circle’s blockchain network for programmable finance.
Arc had more than 100 ecosystem and institutional builders ahead of its scheduled September 16 public-mainnet launch.
The initial product suite is expected to include privacy capabilities, infrastructure for financial agents, and support for tokenized real-world assets.
Circle’s founding group of third-party Arc validators includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo, and Visa.
The validator model gives financial institutions that rely on the network a role in securing its infrastructure.
BlackRock is expected to deploy its BUIDL institutional digital-liquidity fund on Arc.
DTCC plans to enable the tokenization of assets held through The Depository Trust Company.
Circle said BlackRock, BNY, DTCC, and Standard Chartered are building or exploring integrations involving tokenized settlement, custody, stablecoin access, foreign exchange, and repo infrastructure.
Circle also continued expanding USDC’s connection to traditional banking systems.
BNY added direct USDC minting and redemption within its Digital Asset Custody platform.
Standard Chartered introduced bank-led access that allows institutional customers to convert between fiat currency and USDC through a single onboarding process.
Nium connected USDC settlement with a payout infrastructure covering more than 190 countries.
The integration allows financial institutions to transfer value through Circle Payments Network and settle transactions in local currencies.
JCB is combining Circle’s stablecoin infrastructure with its global merchant network.
The companies are initially focusing on cross-border treasury transfers and in-store stablecoin payment experiences in Japan.
Kakao Group also began exploring USDC and blockchain-payment infrastructure in Korea.
USDC also entered regulated derivatives collateral.
Marex enabled what Circle described as the first stablecoin-powered initial-margin transaction in regulated derivatives clearing.
The transaction allowed institutional customers to post USDC as collateral for CFTC-regulated derivatives.
Circle received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust.
The approval makes Circle one of the first stablecoin issuers to receive a federal trust-bank charter and authorizes federally regulated digital-asset custody.
Future capabilities could include management of the USDC Reserve.
The New York Department of Financial Services separately approved Circle New York Trust as a digital asset-focused limited-purpose trust company.
Circle Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume based on the trailing 30 days at the end of the quarter.
That represented sequential growth of 76%.
The number of enrolled financial institutions increased 29% to 175.
Circle is also positioning USDC as settlement infrastructure for autonomous software agents.
Its Agent Stack, launched in May 2026, contained more than 900 paid services.
USDC settled 99.3% of payment volume using the x402 agent-payment protocol.
The company plans to broaden the agentic product roadmap during the second half, including capabilities that allow agents to earn.
The initiative could create another source of network activity, although the report did not disclose how much current revenue comes from agent transactions.
Circle’s second-quarter results show that USDC’s utility and transaction activity are expanding faster than the company’s current monetization.
Revenue remains dominated by reserve income, making interest rates and distribution economics major financial variables even as USDC gains additional uses across banking, tokenization, derivatives, international settlement, and AI.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our quarterly financial results reflect the current rate environment and a crypto market that has slowed, both conditions outside our network. But near-term activity tells a different story.”
“We received our federal trust bank charter, Arc is launching on public mainnet September 16, and we launched the Agent Stack to put programmable money at the center of the agentic economy.”
“The institutions using USDC today, like BlackRock, BNY, and Standard Chartered, aren’t piloting, they are expanding.”
Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer And Chairman Of Circle
