Circle: $819M of H1 USDC revenue went to partners and costs

Circle has published a breakdown of where its USDC money goes: of roughly $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, $819 million was paid to distribution partners and transaction costs, and about $473 million was reinvested in the business, The Block reported on Friday. The stablecoin issuer says that left it with roughly 7 cents of net profit for every dollar of revenue.

The numbers Circle shared

• Revenue: about $1.4 billion in H1 2026, mostly interest earned on the reserves backing USDC.
• Partners and costs: $819 million went to distribution partners — the exchanges, wallets and platforms that hold and promote USDC — and to transaction costs.
• Reinvestment: about $473 million went into infrastructure, compliance and product development.
• Usage: USDC handled more than $36 trillion of onchain transaction volume and, Circle says, about 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier.

Why Circle is publishing this

The blog post, signed by chief operating officer Kash Razzaghi, pushes back against newer stablecoin issuers that argue incumbents keep too much of the yield, charge too much for redemptions and could be replaced by leaner models. Razzaghi argued that the reinvestment "is not overhead", saying a digital dollar has to be redeemable at any hour, held by regulated institutions and available natively across many blockchains.

Competition for distribution is the core issue: issuers earn interest on reserves, but much of it flows to the platforms that bring them users. Standard Chartered, cited by The Block, estimates that monthly stablecoin transfer value has averaged nearly $10 trillion this year.

What's next

Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) reports third-quarter results on November 4. The company has been expanding fast — this week it said it is targeting 40 new markets and working with Visa on USDC prefunding, while Standard Chartered projects the stablecoin market could reach $2 trillion by 2030. New to the topic? Start with what is a stablecoin.