Circle said about $819 million of its roughly $1.4 billion in first-half 2026 revenue went to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs, or about 59 cents of every revenue dollar. The figures were disclosed in an Oct. 16 blog post by Kash Razzaghi, Circle’s chief commercial officer.
The post did not specify how much of the $819 million went to partners and how much was tied to transaction costs.
How Circle split its revenue
Razzaghi wrote that another roughly $473 million, equal to about 34 cents of every revenue dollar, was put back into the business. He said that spending covered licenses, bank relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance, new products and blockchain integrations.
According to the post, Circle kept 7 cents of net profit from every dollar of revenue it earned.
Response to newer stablecoin entrants
Razzaghi presented the figures as an answer to newer entrants that have argued issuers keep too much of a stablecoin’s income and charge too much for redemptions.
“Circle shares the majority of USDC’s economics with the partners that drive its adoption,” he wrote.
He also described pitches that promise partners a substantial majority of issuer income as offering a stablecoin that “distributes everything but funds nothing.”
“Without that foundation, a stablecoin is not a digital dollar; it is a token,” Razzaghi wrote, referring to Circle’s spending on licensing, banking and liquidity.
Circle did not name Open USD or any other competitor in the post.
In June, Unchained reported that more than 140 companies, including Coinbase, Visa and Stripe, had backed Open USD, a stablecoin from Open Standard that would pass all reserve earnings to partners except for a small management fee.
How partners are paid
Under the arrangement described by Razzaghi, a partner’s share of reserve income rises with the amount of USDC balances it brings in and holds.
He pointed to Coinbase and cited its second-quarter results, which showed a record $20 billion in average USDC held in its products, up 44% year over year.
Razzaghi also cited Binance, saying the exchange agreed to a five-year commercial deal with Circle in September and bought $100 million of Circle stock.
The post added that more than 150 other partners have an economic stake in USDC’s growth.
Redemptions and the cost of speed
On redemptions, Razzaghi said every Circle customer can redeem USDC for free over standard bank rails, with settlement in up to two business days.
Free, near-instant redemption is also available to Circle Payments Network users and to customers that qualify through Arc, Circle Mint or Circle Wallets.
He said Circle absorbs that cost by keeping cash at partner banks, where it earns less than it would in Treasuries.
“We carry that cost so customers don’t have to wait,” he wrote.
USDC volume and activity in the first half
Circle said USDC handled more than $36 trillion in onchain volume in the first half of the year. Over the same period, it minted and redeemed more than $315 billion of the token.
By Circle’s count, USDC represented roughly 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.