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Circle defends USDC economics as stablecoin rivals court its partners with bigger cut
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Circle pushed back on criticism of USDC's economics on Friday, arguing its revenue-sharing model still leaves room for profit. In a blog post, Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi said the issuer retained roughly 7 cents of net profit per revenue dollar in the first half of 2026, as rivals court its partners with richer payouts.
The dispute centers on who keeps the interest earned on assets backing dollar-pegged tokens. Open USD, unveiled in June and backed by Coinbase, Stripe and BlackRock, lets businesses mint and redeem stablecoins without fees and passes reserve income, minus a management fee, to participants. The Paxos-led Global Dollar Network shares reserve income similarly.
Circle reported about $1.4 billion in revenue for the half-year, with $819 million consumed by distribution and transaction costs. The remaining $473 million covered compliance, liquidity and product development, including roughly $214 million in stock-based compensation. Razzaghi insisted those outlays are unavoidable: "The costs of redemption, compliance, and resilience don't disappear just because the issuer declined to pay them."
Coinbase remains Circle's largest USDC partner despite backing Open USD. In September, Binance bought a $100 million stake in Circle under a five-year deal that includes a fee tied to USDC held through Circle's wallet service. Circle's blog post did not name Open USD directly.
Circle said standard USDC redemptions stay free and typically settle within two business days. Qualifying platform customers and payment flows through the Circle Payments Network can access near-real-time redemptions at no cost. The company has also been working to secure additional distribution partners.
Competition is likely to intensify as more networks promise partners a share of reserve income. Diversified real-world-asset stablecoins sustain 5-7% yields from real credit as crypto funding compresses to about 4%, with the addressable market projected to reach $4 billion within three years.
