Safe, the multisig based smart account platform securing $60 billion in digital assets, and Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), a financial tech company and stablecoin market participant, announced a new strategic partnership to establish Safe as an institutional storage solution for USDC in self-custody and DeFi. With the rise of decentralized systems, many service providers are now encouraging the adoption of self-custody solutions so that asset owners can truly control their holdings.
They are now building rails for the so-called next generation of onchain capital markets and formalizing Safe’s role as an “institutional standard” USDC treasury management.
According to the announcement, $2.5 billion in USDC is presently held in Safe smart accounts.
This usage is said to demonstrate the market’s “trust” in Safe’s security and is also reportedly validating the alignment between Circle’s regulated stablecoin as well as Safe’s “enterprise-grade” infrastructure.
The partnership will now focus on providing an enhanced experience for institutional USDC holders from initial onboarding to enhanced treasury management, by positioning the stablecoin at the core of the Safe ecosystem.
Safe’s programmable multi-signature tech, which enables around 4% of all Ethereum transfers, offers the institutional-grade security required for “large-scale treasury operations” while also maintaining access to DeFi’s liquidity pools, where USDC is a widely-used asset.
Now, Circle and Safe will aim to enhance product integrations and improve workflows to enable established and emerging institutions such as DAOs, crypto-native funds, and Fortune 500 companies exploring crypto, with the self-custodial infrastructure they require to operate onchain.
With this collab, Circle and Safe are focused on reinforcing the need for secure, programmable, and “institution-ready” self-custody.
This update comes after a period of steady growth for Safe as it hit transaction volumes of $1 trillion.
In Q1 2025, total volume processed across Safe smart accounts reached an all-time high of $189.6 billion—driven by “increased activity” on Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
Safe smart accounts reached a new milestone of 116.7 million transactions during the quarter, with “over $26.2 billion in DEX volume, marking a 442% surge.”
These metrics reinforce Safe’s role as the core infrastructure for onchain capital coordination. To address institutional demand, Safe has introduced Safe Labs, which is focused on building “enterprise-grade self-custody” infrastructure, solidifying Safe’s role at the intersection of security, composability, and institutional adoption.
Safe (previously known as Gnosis Safe) is said to be an onchain asset custody protocol, securing around $60 billion in assets.
Introduced as on open-source software stack by the Safe Ecosystem Foundation, it is currently focused on establishing a ‘smart account’ standard for custody of digital assets, data, and identity.
Safe explains that it is built with the intention of unlocking digital ownership for in web3, including DAOs, enterprises, retail, as well as institutional users
The stated mission of the Safe Ecosystem Foundation is to support the ongoing development of Safe, in order to strengthen Safe technology and to enable the Safe Ecosystem.
The Safe Ecosystem is described as a non-profit entity that is currently based in Zug, Switzerland. It helps educate consumers about Safe smart accounts and promotes Safe tech via the provision of various grants along with other types of funding mechanisms.