💵 Circle — The Full Picture

Every product, every comparison, every integration — diagrammed

Part 1

What Circle Builds

Five products. Only one makes real money today. The others are bets on where the business is going.

🪙
USDC — The Digital Dollar
The core product · ~95% of revenue
You send $1 via Coinbase, bank, or Circle Mint Circle holds it Invested in U.S. Treasuries (earning ~4.5% interest) You get 1 USDC Digital token on a blockchain Send anywhere, instantly Circle keeps the interest $2.63B in FY25 When you're done: Return 1 USDC Get your $1 back

USDC: You get a digital dollar. Circle earns interest on the real dollar. You redeem anytime, 1:1.

$75.3BIn circulation
$11.9TQ4 volume
+72%YoY growth
95.5%Rev from interest
🌐
Circle Payments Network (CPN)
Cross-border payment rail · "SWIFT for stablecoins"
EXAMPLE: US COMPANY PAYS BRAZILIAN SUPPLIER 🏢 US Company Sends $50,000 in US dollars OFI Originating FI (US bank/fintech) USD → USDC CPN Smart routing Compliance FX matching BFI Beneficiary FI (Brazilian bank) USDC → BRL 🏭 BR Supplier Receives R$ in Brazilian reais USD USDC USDC BRL ⛓️ Settlement: USDC moves on-chain (Ethereum/Solana) — seconds, not days THE SAME PAYMENT VIA SWIFT TODAY: US Bank Correspondent 1 Correspondent 2 Correspondent 3 Brazilian Bank 2-5 days · $25-50 fees · Each bank takes a cut · Banking hours only · Opaque FX

CPN: 2 hops + blockchain. SWIFT: 4+ hops + days of waiting.

55FIs enrolled
$5.7BAnnualized TPV
74In review
⛓️
Arc — Circle's Own Blockchain
Layer-1 blockchain · "The Economic OS" · Pre-revenue
WHY ARC EXISTS — PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING BLOCKCHAINS ❌ TODAY (Ethereum/Solana) 💸 Gas fees in volatile ETH/SOL — unpredictable costs A bank can't budget when tx costs swing 10x in a day 👁️ Every transaction is public — no privacy Competitors can see your treasury balances and payment flows 🔄 No built-in FX — need third-party protocols to convert Every currency swap requires separate DEXs with slippage risk ⏱️ Finality varies — Ethereum: ~12 min, Solana: ~0.4s Banks need deterministic certainty, not "probably final" → ✅ ARC (Circle's blockchain) 🪙 Gas fees paid in USDC — stable, dollar-denominated Predictable costs. No volatile crypto needed. 🔒 Opt-in privacy — shielded balances & transactions Enterprises choose what's visible. Compliance-friendly. 💱 Built-in FX engine — institutional RFQ system 24/7 on-chain currency conversion, no third parties. ⚡ Sub-second deterministic finality (Malachite consensus) You know instantly it's done. No "probably."

Arc fixes every problem banks have with existing blockchains. Testnet live, mainnet 2026. Visa is testing it.

100+Testnet participants
166M+Test transactions
0.5sFinality
2026Mainnet target
• • •
Part 2

What Circle's Products Replace

The old way vs. the new way — with honest gaps noted.

Visa Settlement: Old vs. New
AFTER YOU SWIPE YOUR CARD — what happens behind the scenes OLD WAY 👤 You swipe card VisaNet Auth + clearing → 🏦 JPMorgan Settlement bank → Fedwire transfer 1-2 days, biz hours → Acquirer (Worldpay) NEW WAY (with USDC) 👤 You same card swipe VisaNet Auth + clearing (unchanged) → Visa's Circle Account Sends USDC on Solana → Acquirer Receives USDC → 🏪 Merchant WHAT CHANGED Only the last step — the settlement asset. JPMorgan Fedwire → USDC on Solana. VisaNet still does auth + clearing (unchanged). Consumer experience identical. Result: 24/7 settlement instead of business hours. Near-instant instead of 1-2 days.
Stripe Checkout: USDC as a Payment Method
👤 Consumer Has USDC in crypto wallet USDC Stripe Checkout page 💳 Card | 🪙 USDC | 🏦 Bank 1.5% fee (vs 2.9% for cards) Bridge (Stripe subsidiary) USDC → USD USD 🏪 Merchant Receives USD Never touches crypto Circle USDC issuer (infrastructure) ⚠️ Bridge also issues USDB (its own stablecoin) — Stripe is partner AND competitor to Circle
Remittance: Western Union vs. Stablecoin
OLD WAY: Western Union 👤 Worker in US walks into WU office Western Union 5-10% fee 1-3 days WU office in Manila cash pickup 👨‍👩‍👧 Family receives pesos NEW WAY: Stablecoin Remittance 👤 Worker in US buys USDC on app USDC ⚡ Blockchain Instant. ~$0.01 gas fee. Coins.ph / GCash USDC → PHP via local app 👨‍👩‍👧 Family receives pesos Gap: Receiver needs a crypto-capable app. Quality of off-ramps varies by country. No consumer protection.
Dollar Access: Argentina Example
OLD: Try to buy dollars at a bank 🇦🇷 Argentine citizen wants to save in dollars (100%+ inflation) ✕ Capital controls $200/month limit at artificial official rate NEW: Buy USDC instead Bitso / Lemon Cash Buy USDC with pesos at "blue dollar" rate 🪙 Hold USDC Digital dollar savings No capital controls 60% of all Argentine crypto transactions are stablecoins USDC isn't a speculation tool here — it's a savings account. People need digital dollars because they can't get real ones.
• • •
Part 3

How Institutions Are Integrating USDC

Each one uses USDC differently. Here's the actual flow for each.

💳 Visa — Settlement Asset Substitution
Card swipe (unchanged) → VisaNet auth + netting → Visa's Circle Acct USDC on Solana → → Worldpay/Nuvei receives USDC → 🏪 Merchant USDC or $

Consumer doesn't know. Only the settlement step changed (Fedwire → USDC on Solana). 24/7, seconds.

🛒 Stripe — Consumer Checkout Payment
👤 Consumer pays USDC at checkout USDC → Stripe checkout (1.5% fee) → Bridge USDC → USD USD → 🏪 Merchant receives USD Circle = USDC issuer (infrastructure layer)

Consumer-facing. Chooses USDC at checkout. Merchant gets USD. Bridge/USDB is the competitive wrinkle.

🏦 Coinbase — Distribution Partner (50-56% rev share)
100M+ Coinbase users buy/hold/send USDC $ → Circle mints USDC Invests reserves in Treasuries Earns ~4.5% interest 50-56% → Coinbase takes ~56% of reserve income for driving distribution Circle keeps ~44% + other revenue

Coinbase is the #1 distribution channel but takes more than half the interest. Circle's biggest cost — and biggest dependency.

🧾 Intuit — SMB Platform Integration
7M+ SMBs on QuickBooks → Intuit integrates USDC Invoicing, B2B payments, treasury → SMB sends invoice in USDC Client pays USDC, instant settle → Faster than ACH invoicing No 2-3 day wait for payment Details still emerging
🎰 Polymarket — Settlement & Collateral
👤 Trader deposits USDC USDC → Polymarket Prediction market All bets & payouts in USDC USDC → Winner instant USDC payout $3B+ volume in 2024 election Proves USDC works for high-freq, high-volume real-time settlement
🌎 Airtm / LatAm — Dollar Savings in Inflation Countries
🇦🇷🇻🇪🇨🇴 Worker receives USD payroll → Airtm + Bridge converts USD → USDC → 🪙 Hold USDC Protected from peso devaluation when needed → Sell USDC on local exchange for pesos at market rate (Bitso, Lemon Cash, P2P)

Not speculation — savings protection. People in inflation countries use USDC because they can't access real dollars.

Three ways institutions use USDC

1. As settlement infrastructure (Visa, Zodia/StanChart) — invisible to end users, replaces wire transfers
2. As a payment method (Stripe, Polymarket) — consumer-facing, alternative to cards
3. As a dollar substitute (Airtm, Argentina, Bermuda) — replacing actual dollars where they're scarce

For Allaire: Which of these three vectors is growing fastest? Which has the most TAM? And how does each affect USDC circulation growth if interest rates come down?