What Is Circle? The Company Behind USDC, EURC and CCTP

Who runs Circle

The listed parent is Circle Internet Group, Inc., incorporated in Delaware, with its principal executive office at One World Trade Center in New York. Its Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 reports roughly 1,100 employees at year-end 2025 and lists operating subsidiaries in several jurisdictions, including Circle Internet Financial, LLC (US), Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS ("Circle France"), Circle International Bermuda Limited, Circle Internet Singapore Pte. Ltd., Circle UK Trading Limited and Circle Internet MEA Ltd. in Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Which subsidiary you deal with depends on where you are and what you are doing. Circle's USDC terms (updated October 15, 2026) name Circle Internet Financial, LLC as the USDC issuer for holders outside the European Economic Area, with Circle France acting as a second issuer since July 1, 2024, and Singapore customers contracting with the Singapore entity.

On licensing, each permission belongs to a specific entity, not to "Circle" as a whole:

• United States: Circle Internet Financial, LLC (NMLS ID 1201441) holds a New York money transmitter license and a virtual currency (BitLicense) authorization from the New York State Department of Financial Services, according to Circle's USDC page.
• European Economic Area: Circle France holds an electronic money institution license supervised by France's ACPR, which the 10-K says lets it issue USDC and EURC in the EEA under the e-money-token rules of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
• Bermuda: Circle International Bermuda Limited is licensed for digital asset business by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The complete list sits on Circle's licenses page. A license held by one subsidiary does not authorize a different subsidiary or every country.

USDC: how the dollar token works

USDC is a token designed to hold a value of one US dollar, issued on public blockchains and backed by dollar reserves. As of October 15, 2026, Circle reported about $72.5 billion of USDC in circulation and native issuance on 38 blockchain networks (count dated September 16, 2026), per its USDC page.

"Native" matters. Circle issues USDC directly on those networks; copies of USDC created by third-party bridges on other chains are separate tokens that depend on the bridge, not on Circle. Contract addresses for each supported network are published on circle.com, and checking an address there is the reliable way to tell native USDC from a look-alike.

Reserves and attestations

Circle states that USDC reserves are held in cash and cash equivalents. Most of the reserve sits in the Circle Reserve Fund (ticker USDXX), an SEC-registered government money market fund managed by BlackRock and custodied at The Bank of New York Mellon; the rest is cash at regulated banks. BlackRock publishes daily portfolio reporting for the fund.

Circle publishes monthly reserve attestations by a Big Four accounting firm. An attestation checks reserve balances at points in time; it is narrower than a full audit of the company. Separately, Deloitte & Touche LLP audits Circle's corporate financial statements.

EURC: the euro token

EURC is Circle's euro-denominated stablecoin, issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS as an e-money token under MiCA. Circle reported €447.1 million of EURC in circulation as of October 15, 2026, on its EURC page, which names Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar among supported networks and lists further contract addresses for networks such as Arc and World Chain.

One inconsistency is visible on that page: the main copy says EURC reserves are held at regulated institutions in the EEA, while a footnote refers to cash at US financial institutions. Readers who need the exact location of reserves should rely on the latest monthly EURC attestation rather than marketing copy.

Who can mint and redeem directly

Only institutions deal with Circle directly. Circle Mint, the service for creating and redeeming USDC and EURC against bank transfers, is open to exchanges, institutional traders, banks and other qualified businesses. Circle's USDC page says Mint is not available to individuals or small businesses.

For everyone else, the practical path runs through an exchange, neobank, wallet or payment provider that holds a Mint account. Selling USDC for dollars on such a platform means relying on that platform's own terms, fees and withdrawal rules; Circle's one-for-one redemption commitment applies to Mint account holders.

Per the 10-K and USDC terms:

1. A business opens a Circle Mint account in a supported jurisdiction and passes verification (US residents require KYC; account holders must be at least 18, or 21 in Singapore).
2. It wires dollars or euros; Circle mints the equivalent tokens. Minting is free.
3. To redeem, it returns tokens. Basic redemption is free and settles within two business days; standard redemption is near-instant and carries a nominal fee.
4. Sending tokens on-chain from a Mint account is charged under Circle's fee schedule, and the customer's own bank may add transfer fees.

Moving USDC between chains with CCTP

CCTP answers a common question: how does USDC get from one chain to another without a wrapped copy? The protocol burns USDC on the source chain, Circle's attestation service (called Iris) signs a message confirming the burn, and the same amount is minted on the destination chain. There is no liquidity pool that could run dry or be drained, which removes a class of bridge risk but adds dependence on Circle's attestation service.

According to Circle's developer documentation, CCTP V2 offers two speeds as of October 2026:

The supported-chains page listed 31 networks for V2 when checked, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Sui, Aptos, Polygon PoS, Stellar, HyperEVM and Arc. Noble remains on the legacy V1. Optional "hooks" can trigger an action on the destination chain once funds arrive. Most people use CCTP indirectly, through a wallet or bridge interface that calls it. OBOL's guide to bridging assets cross-chain covers the general trade-offs of different bridge designs.

Arc, Circle's own blockchain

Arc is a layer-1 network that Circle designed for payments and financial applications. Its public mainnet opened on September 16, 2026, The Block reported. Gas fees are paid in USDC. The 10-K describes a permissioned validator set and sub-second deterministic finality; Circle named founding validators including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC and ICE, joining in phases.

Circle completed a genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens but described it as a technical step, not a commitment to a public launch. As of October 2026 there is no public ARC token offering.

How Circle makes money

Circle's revenue comes mainly from reserve income: interest earned on the Treasuries, repurchase agreements and cash that back USDC and EURC. USDC holders do not receive that interest from Circle. Revenue therefore rises and falls with both circulation and short-term interest rates.

A large share of that income is passed on to distribution partners. Under the Coinbase Collaboration Agreement described in the 10-K, Coinbase receives reserve income tied to USDC held on its platform plus half of the remaining income from USDC circulating elsewhere, after payments to other approved participants. Circle records these as distribution costs. CCTP V2 Fast Transfers and Circle Mint's faster redemptions generate smaller fee revenue.

Risks a USDC or EURC holder takes on

Address blocking and freezes. The USDC terms let Circle block addresses it associates with illegal activity or terms violations, freeze USDC held at those addresses, and act on valid government orders. This is part of how a regulated stablecoin works; it also means USDC is not censorship-resistant in the way a token without an issuer can be.

De-peg risk. The peg has broken before. In March 2023 Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of its then roughly $40 billion of USDC reserves sat at Silicon Valley Bank when the bank failed; USDC traded around $0.90 on secondary markets that weekend, The Block reported, before recovering once US authorities guaranteed SVB deposits. Circle later moved reserve cash to BNY Mellon.

Access risk. Because only Mint customers redeem directly, an individual's exit depends on an intermediary's liquidity and policies.

Chain and bridge risk. Native USDC on a chain inherits that chain's outages and fee spikes. Bridged versions carry the bridge's own trust model.

Custody choices. USDC in an exchange account is custodial; USDC in a self-custody wallet depends on your key security. OBOL's explainer on custodial vs. non-custodial storage sets out the difference.

History in brief

• October 2013: Founded in Boston by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville. Allaire is chief executive and chair; Neville stepped down as co-CEO in late 2019 but remained on the board.
• 2018: Acquired the Poloniex exchange (sold in 2019). In September, launched USDC through the Centre consortium, of which Coinbase was a member.
• July 2021 – December 2022: Announced and then terminated a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company.
• March 2023: SVB exposure and temporary USDC de-peg.
• August 2023: Centre dissolved; Circle took over USDC governance directly.
• July 1, 2024: Circle France became a second USDC issuer for the EEA.
• March 2025: CCTP V2 launched with Fast Transfers.
• June 5, 2025: Shares began trading on the NYSE after an IPO priced at $31, Fortune reported.
• September 16, 2026: Arc mainnet opened.

Support and official channels

Circle runs a help center at help.circle.com and a contact page. Retail users who bought USDC through an exchange or wallet should contact that provider first: Circle does not hold their account. Circle staff will not ask for seed phrases or private keys.

Official channels, as linked from circle.com:

• Website: circle.com/
• X: twitter.com/circle
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/circle-internet-financial/
• YouTube: youtube.com/c/Circlecryptofinance
• Instagram: instagram.com/teamcircle/
• Discord (developer community): discord.com/invite/buildoncircle
• Developer documentation: developers.circle.com/

Accounts or sites that are not on this list and offer "USDC redemption," "airdrops" or support chats should be treated as suspect.

OBOL coverage of Circle products

Circle's products are assessed separately in OBOL's ratings: see OBOL's USDC review, OBOL's EURC review and OBOL's review of Circle CCTP. Broader comparisons sit in the stablecoins and bridges ratings hubs.