circle

Circle officially announced that its euro stablecoin EURC has surpassed a circulation of 400 million euros, becoming an important growth node in the on-chain financial ecosystem of the Eurozone. Circle stated that the supply of EURC has increased by over 100% in the past year, as the demand for compliant stablecoins has risen from trading platforms, payment networks, and institutional businesses, moving EURC from the experimental phase to practical application. EURC was first launched on Ethereum in June 2022 and has since expanded to multiple blockchains including Avalanche, Stellar, Solana, and Base.As of the end of 2024, EURC has covered five chains, with a circulation scale of approximately 80 million euros, and continues to grow. Currently, EURC has been launched on several mainstream trading platforms such as Bitpanda, Bitstamp, Bybit, Coinbase, and Kraken, supporting EURC/EUR and EURC/USD trading pairs, further enhancing on-chain liquidity for euros. Circle stated that the application scenarios for EURC are expanding from trading to payments, settlements, and institutional fund management. Currently, fiat withdrawal and recharge service providers such as Mercuryo, MoonPay, Ramp, and Transak have supported users to directly access digital assets using euros, and institutional custody and settlement platforms such as Cobo, Copper, and Fireblocks have also integrated EURC.In addition, both Visa and Mastercard have previously expanded their support for EURC's settlement capabilities, making it available for cross-border payments, card payment settlements, and enterprise-level fund circulation scenarios. With the full implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), EURC operates under the electronic money token (EMT) standard, issued by Circle's French electronic money institution and regulated by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR). The reserve assets of EURC are completely isolated from Circle's corporate funds and are regularly audited and confirmed by independent third parties.As of January 2026, the total supply of global stablecoins is approximately 300 billion dollars. Although dollar stablecoins still dominate, euro stablecoins have become the second largest category. The market size of euro stablecoins has grown from about 400 million euros in June 2025 to about 650 million euros in June 2026, with EURC maintaining a leading position. Circle stated that despite the growth of EURC, euro stablecoins are still in the early stages compared to the M2 money supply of over 16 trillion euros in the Eurozone, and there is still significant room for growth in real-time settlements, cross-border payments, and enterprise financial infrastructure in the future.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated on X that the company has recently released a short-term roadmap for agentic capabilities and related standards. This roadmap covers multiple capabilities being built, with a focus on expanding support for agents as work sellers, and involves mechanisms such as agent identity, reputation, verification, and trusted discovery.Allaire pointed out that the above planning aims to promote the implementation of agent-related standards and functionalities, enabling agents to participate in work transactions and service provision. As the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, Circle continues to pay attention to the integration of infrastructure such as payments and on-chain identity with emerging agent scenarios.

According to official data, in the 7 days ending August 13, Circle issued approximately 5.4 billion USDC, redeemed about 5.3 billion USDC, and the circulation increased by approximately 100 million. The total circulation of USDC is 71.9 billion, with reserves of about 72.6 billion USD, including overnight reverse repurchase agreements of approximately 47.7 billion USD; Treasury bonds with maturities of less than 3 months of about 13.5 billion USD; deposits from systemically important institutions of about 10.2 billion USD; and other bank deposits of about 1.2 billion USD.

According to Cointelegraph, Morgan Stanley's latest 13F filing submitted to the U.S. SEC shows that as of June 30, it held approximately 16.5 million shares of BlackRock IBIT, an increase of 23% from 13.4 million shares in the first quarter. However, due to the decline in Bitcoin prices during the quarter, the market value of this holding dropped from $667 million to $549 million, a decrease of about 18%.During the same period, Morgan Stanley also held 2.57 million shares of MSBT, valued at approximately $43.3 million, and increased its holdings in Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust, Bitwise Bitcoin ETF, and Fidelity FBTC, with FBTC holdings increasing by nearly 38%.In terms of Ethereum, its ETHA holdings increased by about 202% to 4.6 million shares, and the Grayscale Ethereum Staked Mini ETF holdings increased by about 26% to 5.1 million shares. Additionally, Morgan Stanley also established new positions in the Grayscale Solana Staked ETF and Fidelity Solana Fund, with market values of approximately $4.25 million and $2.26 million, respectively.On the individual stock front, Morgan Stanley's holdings in Circle (CRCL) surged from about 1.46 million shares to 8.32 million shares, while also increasing positions in mining companies and infrastructure firms such as Cipher Digital, Core Scientific, Hut 8, and Bitdeer; on the other hand, it reduced its holdings by about 550,000 shares in Coinbase, reduced over 3.1 million shares in CleanSpark, and completely exited approximately 8 million shares in Bitfarms.

ChianCatcher news, Circle's Senior Director of Strategy and Policy for the EU, Patrick Hansen, pointed out in a tweet that among the approximately 23 authorized electronic money token (EMT) issuers in the EU, only 9 have been granted permission to provide crypto asset services (CASP). This means that only these 9 can offer custody and transfer services for the stablecoins they issue, while the remaining 14 can only mint or burn tokens directly to customer wallets and cannot hold or send stablecoins on behalf of customers. This greatly limits the range of services that issuers can provide.Hansen stated that Circle has obtained the necessary CASP approval through the MiCA Article 60 notification procedure to provide custody or payment services related to USDC and EURC for institutional clients. He expressed surprise that more EMT issuers have not taken this step. The 9 that can currently offer some crypto asset services include Circle, Société Générale - Forge, CACEIS Bank, Banking Circle, Bridge, Fiat Republic, Newrails, Blue EMI, and Stable Mint.

The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) established a position in Circle stocks in the second quarter, holding 65,443 shares valued at approximately $4.09 million.In addition, during the same period, it reduced its holdings in Strategy, Coinbase, and Riot Platforms, while increasing its holdings in Block and Robinhood stocks.

According to The Defiant, Circle's wrapped Bitcoin product cirBTC has been live on Ethereum since June 8, but its circulation is currently only about 40 coins. According to Etherscan, its maximum supply is approximately 40.02 cirBTC, with only 11 holding addresses. Circle's reserve dashboard (data as of August 11) shows that there are about 40.02 cirBTC in circulation, corresponding to reserves of approximately 42.51 BTC.cirBTC is issued by Circle International Bermuda Limited, backed by a 1:1 BTC collateral, with the underlying assets held in trust by Circle National Trust and isolated from company assets, supporting Chainlink reserve proofs for on-chain real-time verification. Qualified institutions can mint and redeem through Circle Mint. Currently, it is only deployed on Ethereum, with Arc as the next target chain, and plans to expand to multi-chain.In comparison, WBTC has a circulation of over 116,000 coins, and cbBTC has about 97,000 coins. CoinGecko currently marks cirBTC as "preview" status, and it has not yet been listed for trading on mainstream centralized and decentralized exchanges.

During the US stock market, Circle (CRCL) stock price rose over 6%, reaching a high of $73.35 during the session, with a market capitalization of approximately $18 billion.Recently, Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen stated that as the stablecoin market expands to trillions of dollars, Circle's value is underestimated by the market, and it will not only become a stablecoin giant but also a payment giant.

According to CoinDesk, Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen stated that as the stablecoin market expands to a scale of trillions of dollars, Circle's value is underestimated by the market. Rasmussen expects the stablecoin market to grow from about $300 billion to $3 to $5 trillion, with Circle having a first-mover advantage due to its existing market share as U.S. stablecoin regulations take shape.He believes that Circle will not only become a stablecoin giant but also a payment giant—its payment infrastructure under construction will play a key role in a stablecoin-driven financial system, yet investors are still too focused on its reserve business. Rasmussen compared Circle's potential development trajectory to that of Visa and Mastercard, arguing that the entry of banks and other giants is not a major threat, as the pace of market expansion is sufficient for Circle to maintain growth. He mentioned that Circle's Arc blockchain will test whether it can expand from stablecoin issuance to the payment infrastructure sector, with the key in the coming year being how its economic model changes with the adoption of stablecoins and the development of infrastructure.

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest announced its trading records on August 7, purchasing 313,764 shares of Circle (CRCL) stock at a price of $66.67, with a total value of approximately $20.92 million; purchasing 114,815 shares of SpaceX (SPCX) stock at a price of $133.1, with a total value of approximately $15.28 million; purchasing 59,668 shares of Coinbase (COIN) stock at a price of $153.6, with a total value of approximately $9.16 million.

Circle's Senior Director of Strategy and Policy, Patrick Hansen, stated that after the comprehensive implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), licenses have been issued for 35 electronic currency tokens from 21 issuers, and local issuers are making good progress. Patrick Hansen pointed out that the strict regulations of MiCA have made it impossible for most major stablecoin issuers, including Tether, to meet operational requirements. Currently, only USDG, USDC, and EURC comply with the framework requirements, while other stablecoins fall outside the regulatory scope of MiCA, leaving EU users unprotected or unable to access services.He believes that the upcoming review of MiCA should address this issue and provide a more pragmatic operational pathway for foreign issuers. The EU's Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union launched a public consultation on May 20 to assess whether the current framework is still applicable, with the consultation continuing until September 30.

According to The Block, research firm Bernstein reaffirmed its "Outperform" rating and maintained a target price of $140 after Circle announced its Q2 2026 financial results, believing that the company's latest performance constitutes a "reverse validation" of the market's bearish views. Bernstein analysts stated that the market currently underestimates USDC's long-term growth potential and Circle's advantages in distribution channels, liquidity, and regulatory compliance, due to two major core concerns regarding Circle—intensifying competition in stablecoins and changes in the interest rate environment that may affect reserve income.Investors may not have fully accounted for the future revenue opportunities from transaction fees, partner ecosystems, and the Arc blockchain that Circle could generate. The firm specifically pointed out that several infrastructure initiatives recently advanced by Circle, including obtaining a national trust bank license in the U.S., expanding the Circle Payments Network, and the planned launch of the Arc public chain mainnet on September 16, could all become future growth drivers. Additionally, Bernstein noted that Circle has raised its guidance for other revenues and profit margins after deducting distribution costs for 2026, expecting to confirm approximately $180 million in Arc token presale revenue.Analysts believe that future staking yields, gas fees, and ecosystem partnership revenues from Arc have not been fully reflected in current valuation expectations. As of the end of Q2, the circulating supply of USDC was $73.3 billion, a decrease of 5% from the previous quarter but an increase of 19% year-over-year. Bernstein believes that Circle is shifting from a purely crypto trading infrastructure to payments, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and broader financial infrastructure, which will drive USDC into the next phase of growth. Circle's stock closed at $63.28 on Wednesday, and Bernstein's target price of $140 implies a potential upside of about 121%.

According to Cryptopolitan, the U.S. Senate will enter a recess on August 7, and the window for the CLARITY Act to pass before then is extremely limited. If a vote is not completed this week, the next feasible window will be pushed to September, and if missed again, it may be delayed until after the midterm elections, potentially not being realized until 2027. The main disagreement in the bill currently lies in the Democrats' insistence on including ethical provisions for cryptocurrency professionals targeting senior government officials, but the merged draft has not yet incorporated relevant statements.During this regulatory vacuum, large institutions like Coinbase and Circle are better able to adapt to uncertain environments due to their capital strength—ARK Invest increased its holdings in the aforementioned two companies this week, and Circle also received approval for a federal national trust bank license in July—while small and medium-sized cryptocurrency companies and DeFi projects continue to face pressure. In terms of the market, Polymarket data shows that the probability of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 has dropped to 23%, a significant decline from the 67%–75% predicted by Galaxy Research in mid-May.

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest purchased $17.3 million worth of shares in Circle Internet Group and $19.7 million worth of shares in SpaceX on Wednesday.On that day, Circle-related stocks rose by 0.05%, closing at $63.28; SpaceX-related stocks fell by 13.61%, closing at $108.27.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Circle minted 500 million USDC on the Solana chain. By 2026, a total of 76.05 billion USDC will have been minted on the Solana chain.

During the Circle Q2 earnings call, Citigroup analyst Pete Christensen asked about the competitive landscape following the launch of the Open USD Alliance, inquiring how Circle would compete for distribution channels given that reserve revenue sharing is gradually becoming an industry standard and Circle is constrained by its existing economic arrangements with Coinbase.Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire responded that Circle has signed distribution cooperation agreements with over 150 companies and often collaborates with Coinbase on distribution efforts. An example of this is the revenue-sharing arrangement that Circle and Coinbase have jointly established with Hyperliquid. He added that about 70% of the companies expressing interest in participating in such alliance projects are already partners in the Circle network. On the day of the earnings report, Circle also announced that Visa and Mastercard would expand their cooperation as key infrastructure partners for Arc.

Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated during tonight's earnings call: "Our agreement with Coinbase has been renewed under the existing terms, ensuring that USDC continues to play a central role in all of Coinbase's product offerings.At the same time, we look forward to expanding our USDC network through distribution agreements with strategically aligned partners."

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated during the earnings call that the market is shifting from speculative cryptocurrencies to supporting an open global digital asset market for tokenized stocks, tokenized commodities, and other tokenized assets.