Circle (NYSE:CRCL), the issuer of USDC and the second-largest stablecoin issuer in the world, is rising significantly higher as shares catch a bid following solid earnings results.
At the moment, Circle is trading around 20% higher.
According to the earnings release, Circle’s USDC in circulation grew by 72% to $75.3 billion at the end of the year.
USDC onchain transaction volume in the fourth quarter rose by a whopping 247% to $11.9 trillion.
Net Income from operations during the quarter was $133 million. Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was $167 million, growing by 412%.
Total revenue and reserve income for the fiscal year of 2025 were reported at $2.7 billion, which grew 64%
Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Circle, said the results were emblematic of their goal of building an open, programmable internet financial system.
“USDC adoption continued to expand globally as more enterprises, developers, and public institutions integrated digital dollars into real-world payments, treasury, and onchain financial workflows. We saw strong engagement across our platform, meaningful progress toward launching Arc mainnet, continued growth in CPN TPV, and growing momentum for EURC and USYC. With increasing collaboration across traditional finance, fintech, and the public sector, Circle is helping build the infrastructure for a more open and resilient global financial system.”
Results were better than anticipated, thus driving the increase in share price.
As stablecoin legislation, the GENIUS Act, has been approved, and there are expectations that crypto market infrastructure legislation will soon make its way to the President’s desk to be signed into law, Circle is well-positioned to benefit from the transition to digital finance.
Arc, its layer-one blockchain, appears to be on track to deliver high-performance transaction technology, which enterprises demand. Arc is designed to support digital securities and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as a core use case. This could help bridge traditional finance with digital assets, enabling both established assets and novel assets that may become commonplace.
The biggest risk for Circle lies in competition from other native digital asset platforms and traditional finance, which has been slow to embrace crypto but is now working furiously to catch up with the innovators.
Banks have a long history of choosing to stay off competition by creating regulatory moats. Good in the short run but bad in the long wrong. It is not yet clear whether traditional finance will survive the digital asset future, with some potentially falling to the wayside, others partnering, and a few pursuing alternatives. The battle over stablecoin yield highlights the myopic approach by banks, as this is inevitable.