11-05-2026 
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TL;DR: Circle’s Q3 revenue rose 17% to nearly $865 million, but a $182 million ARC presale masked weaker underlying revenue, and 5% of staff were cut. USDC on-chain volume jumped 49%, CPN and Tazapay promise future revenue, and the $6.3 billion Binance hack, where Circle froze $823 million, points to tighter regulation.
Key Takeaways:
- Circle’s Q3 revenue and reserve income hit just under $865 million, up 17% year-on-year, while it cut 5% of its workforce.
- ARC token presale proceeds of $182 million offset declines in other revenue, which would otherwise have fallen to about $25 million.
- USDC on-chain volume jumped 49% to $13.9 trillion, yet reserve income fell 5% as T-bill yields dropped to 3.5%.
- New revenue streams coming soonish: CPN annualized volume reached $41.3 billion, and the Tazapay deal is due to close next year.
- Binance hack to bring greater scrutiny, more regulation, according to CEO Jeremy Allaire, after Circle froze about $823 million in USDC.
USDC stablecoin issuer Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL) reported revenue and profit gains in the third quarter, but the company still turfed 5% of its workforce in line with its ‘strategic priorities.’
Figures released Wednesday show Circle’s ‘revenue and reserve income’ came in at just under $865 million in Q3, up 17% from the same period last year and 23% higher than Q2’s figure. Net income grew to $226 million, up 5% year-on-year, but nearly 5x the profit reported in Q226.
However, the Q3 figures received a $182 million boost from the presale earlier this year of ARC, the native token of Circle’s layer-1 network, Arc, which launched in September. That sum represents about three-quarters of the total $242 million raised via the two ARC presale rounds.
Absent this boost, Circle’s ‘other’ revenue figure falls from $207 million to ~$25 million, significantly below Q2’s $33.6 million. The chief culprit here is subscription & services revenue, which fell by $8 million from Q2 to $20 million (down from $35 million in Q1).
Q3’s reserve income was $657.6 million, down 5% year-on-year and 3% below Q2’s $667.7 million. Deducting the $409.2 million in ‘distribution and transaction costs’, aka the fees Circle pays to digital asset partners for promoting USDC on their platforms (roughly on par with Q2’s figure), you’re left with $248.4 million, slightly below Q2’s $257.3 million.
In September, Circle inked a new deal with Binance that ensures USDC gets a serious promotional push on the world’s largest digital asset exchange. As the deal happened late in Q3 and its terms weren’t disclosed, we can’t say how much this expanded arrangement will weigh on Circle’s costs, nor how much it might expand USDC’s market cap. But costs will likely outweigh benefits in the short term.
The revenue decline came despite the average total of USDC in circulation during Q3 rising 8% year-on-year to $73.3 billion. That sum has slipped in the current quarter, standing at ~$70.5 billion as of the afternoon of November 4.
In fairness, USDC’s primary rival USDT, the market-leading stablecoin issued by Tether, has suffered a proportionate decline in its own market cap. But USDC’s share of the overall stablecoin market still fell 1.8 points to 27% by Q3’s close.
Reserve income is generated primarily by interest on the U.S. Treasury bills that Circle maintains as the primary asset backing for USDC. The average rate of return on those T-bills fell 0.61 percentage points to 3.5% during Q3, offsetting the market cap gains.
Circle’s Q3 operating expenses of $244.9 million were up 16% year-on-year but came in ~4% below Q2’s figure, despite including $9.1 million in restructuring expenses. These were explained in a footnote as stemming from “a workforce reduction of approximately 5% designed to better align our organizational structure with our operating model and strategic priorities.”
Circle’s shares closed Tuesday at $75.22 and tumbled briefly in early Wednesday trading, possibly due to investor uncertainty following Tuesday’s U.S. midterm election results. But the shares ultimately rallied slightly, closing at $76.12 (+1.2%).
How do they do it? Volume!
Circle was keen to focus on non-financial figures, such as USDC on-chain transaction volume rising 49% year-on-year to $13.9 trillion (citing Visa Onchain Analytics data). That accounts for 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume, one point better than USDC’s share at the end of Q2 and 13 points better than Q325. Circle says each USDC token in circulation changed hands ~190 times in Q3, which Circle claims is “about 10x the rate of USDT.”
‘Annualized’ transaction payment volume on the Circle Payment Network (CPN) hit $41.3 billion, up from $14.7 billion in Q2 and from just $2.7 billion in the same period last year. At Q3’s close, CPN had signed up 205 financial institutions that are busy making in/out payments, handling treasury management (including transfers to/from subsidiaries in other countries), and processing other transactions using USDC.
As of October 30, the Arc network had $1.5 billion in assets (mostly USDC, plus $410 million in cirBTC (Circle’s ‘wrapped’ version of the BTC token) and $10 million in Circle’s euro-backed EURC stablecoin). Arc is now handling ~500,000 transactions per day, with these transactions cumulatively averaging ~$1 billion per day “over the past week.”
Circle’s ‘value capture’ strategy for Arc includes the fact that the network’s transaction fees are paid in USDC. The other planks of this strategy include staking rewards for the (soon-to-be proof-of-stake) network’s validators, ‘ecosystem incentives’ (rewards for developers and partners building on the network), plus additional ARC token sales, as well as Circle’s own 2.5 billion ARC token holdings, amounting to one-quarter of total supply.
Other revenue coming soonish
Circle had a list of major announcements during Q3 it wanted investors to focus on, including the acquisition of Tazapay, the Singapore-based cross-border remittance infrastructure firm. The deal is expected to close next year.
Speaking on Wednesday’s earnings call, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Tazapay “brings USDC to the last mile, with bank relationships, virtual accounts, and payout connections across APAC and emerging markets.” Allaire noted that Tazapay had been a CPN design partner since 2025, making it a company Circle understood well before the acquisition.
As for CPN, CFO Jeremy Fox-Green said Circle expects the network to produce “material revenue” next year, although he declined to offer forecasts. (Fox-Green, a five-year Circle veteran, is stepping down from his role in December, so he won’t be around if CPN fails to live up to those ‘material’ forecasts.)
A retail question preselected by Circle before the call asked why revenue/profits haven’t kept pace with USDC adoption. Allaire referenced the ARC token sale, CPN scaling and other monetization efforts as part of Circle’s plan to build a “multifaceted, multi-pillar platform” that will provide “strong continued diversification in the revenue stream.” Just not immediately.
Asked what Circle was doing to boost USDC’s market cap, Allaire said building partnerships with exchanges and financial institutions was strengthening USDC’s “network effects.” Allaire noted that a new (unnamed) rival stablecoin might be “doing maybe $5 million a day of onchain transaction volume, compared to our tens of billions … So liquidity and the infrastructure we have is a huge competitive advantage … And those are critical to winning and growing significantly over time.”
Binance hack to bring more scrutiny, more regulation
Asked about the price of Circle’s extended partnership with Binance, Fox-Green said there were “no upfront costs” but offered no specifics, only a convoluted formula on how Circle’s FY26 margin (excluding the ARC sales) “was trending towards the middle of the original range we gave at the beginning of the year. You can do the kind of backward math from that, and you’ll see the step down that we anticipate in Q4 due to the full quarter of the Binance [deal].”
Asked about last week’s $6.3 billion hack of Binance, Allaire gave Circle a pat on the back for promptly freezing ~$823 million worth of stolen USDC. The promptness of this action marked a significant shift from Circle’s historic, oft-criticized habit of being slow off the mark in response to similar heists.
In April, following the $285 million Drift exploit, Circle claimed it would act only when a court orders it to do so. But Circle quietly revised its policies in May to allow it to freeze tokens based on “certain urgent law enforcement requests pending a valid court order.”
On the day of the Binance attack, Allaire tweeted that the USDC was frozen “in coordination with law enforcement.” But the speed at which the freeze occurred left some questioning whether Circle applies a double standard in protecting its distribution partners.
Regardless, Allaire expressed concern that the pace and scale of attacks are “happening with an extraordinary accelerating velocity.” Allaire warned that “global regulators are absolutely going to continue to put further scrutiny on cyber, on security infrastructure, not just in digital asset exchanges, but for every [financial institution] … I think we will see more regulation around that, because the stakes are really very high.”
FAQs:
How much revenue did Circle make in Q3 2026?
Just under $865 million, up 17% year-on-year, with net income of $226 million. A $182 million ARC presale boosted the totals.
Why did Circle lay off 5% of staff?
Circle said the cut better aligns its structure with its operating model and strategic priorities. It booked $9.1 million in restructuring costs.
What is the ARC token?
ARC is the native token of Circle’s layer-1 network Arc, launched in September. The presale added $182 million to Q3 revenue.
Is USDC volume growing?
Yes. On-chain volume rose 49% to $13.9 trillion in Q3, about 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume.
What is the Circle Payment Network?
Circle Payment Network (CPN) enables financial institutions to move money using USDC. Annualized volume hit $41.3 billion, with 205 institutions signed up.
How much USDC did Circle freeze after the Binance hack?
About $823 million, in coordination with law enforcement.
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