Circle's Patrick Hansen condemned Germany's proposed tax reform that would impose a 50% substitute assessment on crypto asset sales when taxpayers cannot provide credible documentation of their original purchase costs. The planned measure would effectively tax 50% of sales proceeds in cases where proof of purchase is unavailable.
Circle and Tether froze a wallet holding approximately $318,000 in stablecoins following a massive $351.6 million hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget on Thursday. The freeze covers only a small fraction of the total stolen funds.
Circle's Arc Layer 1 blockchain went live on September 16, 2026, with over 100 applications and institutional validators including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard. The company minted 10 billion ARC tokens at launch, with gas fees charged in USDC.
Circle agreed to acquire cross-border payments processor Tazapay for $400 million in stock, marking Circle's largest acquisition since purchasing Poloniex in 2018. Tazapay processes over $25 billion in annual payment volume.
Stablecoin payments company Kast has launched a new business-focused platform combining accounts, payment cards, and other services after closing an $80 million Series A funding round. The company, founded by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy, aims to onboard between 1,000 and 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.
Stablecoin payments company Kast has launched a new business-focused platform combining accounts, payment cards, and other services after closing an $80 million Series A funding round. The company, founded by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy, aims to onboard between 1,000 and 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has signed a sponsorship deal with Premier League club Chelsea FC to become its principal partner and official front-of-shirt sponsor starting in the 2026/27 season, putting USDC branding on the team's jerseys.
Circle has launched Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2, reducing USDC transfer times from minutes to seconds, with Aptos among the first to integrate. Legacy V1 applications have until December 1 to migrate before old routes stop working, with burn limits beginning to fall on October 31.
Hyperliquid activated its Aligned Quote Asset v2 framework on August 26, routing yield from billions in USDC reserves into automatic buybacks and burns of its HYPE token. Circle serves as technical deployer while Coinbase manages the treasury reserves.
Social media platform X is in discussions to use stablecoins such as Circle's USDC to pay royalties to influencers and content providers. The initiative aligns with X's newly launched Original Content Rewards program.
Social media platform X is in discussions to use stablecoins such as Circle's USDC to pay royalties to influencers and content providers. The initiative aligns with X's newly launched Original Content Rewards program.
Circle announced 11 founding validators for its Arc blockchain public mainnet launching September 16, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, and SBI Group. The company reported Q2 revenue of $701 million with USDC circulation reaching $73.3 billion.
Dinari became the first company to offer eligible U.S. investors access to over 700 tokenized stocks, including the entire S&P 500, through self-custody wallets using USDC stablecoin. The platform, launched in partnership with Circle, allows trading of blockchain-based shares backed one-to-one by underlying securities.
Circle secured a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services, allowing it to operate Circle Internet Trust Company and adding state-level oversight to its existing federal OCC national trust approval.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced on July 31, 2026, that it will allow users to pledge six tokenized stocks (xStocks) as collateral across its margin trading, crypto loans, and institutional lending services. The tokenized equities include shares of Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Robinhood, Circle, and Google.
IBM's blockchain patent portfolio — spanning over 680 patent families in banking, insurance, and cloud security — was acquired by Circle Internet Group in July 2026, making it the largest U.S. holder of blockchain patents.
USDC issuer Circle Internet Group has signed separate strategic agreements with South Korea's major fintech platforms Kakao Group and Viva Republica (Toss operator) to explore stablecoin payment infrastructure, remittances, and tokenized finance as the country works to establish a digital asset regulatory framework.
The BIS published research finding that USD-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC are largely unaffected by capital controls across 130+ economies, creating new channels for digital dollarization that challenge traditional monetary policy tools in emerging markets.
Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an infrastructure layer allowing banks and financial institutions to integrate stablecoin payments into its network serving over 200 million merchants. The move comes as Japan's JCB card network also partnered with Circle to test USDC stablecoin payments across 40 million merchant locations.
Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an infrastructure layer allowing banks and financial institutions to integrate stablecoin payments into its network serving over 200 million merchants. The move comes as Japan's JCB card network also partnered with Circle to test USDC stablecoin payments across 40 million merchant locations.
JCB, Japan's largest bank card issuer with 140 million users worldwide, has announced a partnership with Circle to integrate stablecoin payment capabilities into its network, bringing cryptocurrency payments to regular retail stores.
Major investment banks including Mizuho and JPMorgan have downgraded Circle's stock and lowered earnings estimates, citing mounting competitive pressure from traditional banks developing shared stablecoin infrastructure and concerns over the CLARITY Act's regulatory framework.
Stablecoin issuer Circle received final regulatory approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, marking a landmark moment for cryptocurrency regulation. The company's shares jumped 7-8% following the announcement.
Stablecoin issuer Circle received final regulatory approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, marking a landmark moment for cryptocurrency regulation. The company's shares jumped 7-8% following the announcement.
Circle, issuer of USDC stablecoin, received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate as a bank, sending shares up 7%. Meanwhile, Ripple announced a multi-year sports marketing deal with the University of Kansas placing the XRP logo on athletic jerseys, as the company's prime brokerage cleared over $3 trillion annually.
Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, up 63% from May's $1.1 trillion, according to Visa data. Circle's USDC accounted for approximately 70% of the volume, extending its lead over Tether's USDT.
Coinbase partnered with Cardless to launch a stablecoin-backed credit card, while Visa and Mastercard are preparing to enter the stablecoin market and compete over AI agent payment infrastructure, challenging the decade-long dominance of Tether and Circle.
Mastercard is enhancing its stablecoin settlement functionality to support regulated stablecoins including Circle's USDC, Ripple's RLUSD, and SoFi's offerings for credit card transactions and cross-border payments. The expansion comes as payment giants Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are reportedly backing a new stablecoin platform that Coinbase is considering joining.
Polymarket revealed plans for a complete exchange upgrade including a new trading engine, order book system, and native stablecoin backed by Circle's USDC. The overhaul will roll out over 2-3 weeks as the platform prepares for US expansion.
Circle has unveiled plans to make its Arc layer-1 blockchain quantum-resistant from day one, allowing users to create wallets that can withstand future quantum computer attacks. The move comes amid growing concerns that 'Q-Day' may arrive sooner than anticipated.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT published 'Circle Files' alleging that Circle has inconsistently applied its freeze powers for USDC, with wallets blocked while stolen funds continued to move, raising questions about the stablecoin issuer's compliance enforcement.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT publicly accused stablecoin issuer Circle of failing to freeze over $420 million in illicit USDC funds across more than 15 cases since 2022, including the recent Drift Protocol exploit where $230+ million in stolen USDC flowed through Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) without being blocked.
Stablecoin issuer Circle announced plans to launch cirBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed token on Ethereum aimed at institutional users seeking DeFi market access. The move positions Circle to compete with existing wrapped Bitcoin providers BitGo and Coinbase.
Coinbase received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate as a national trust bank, enabling it to offer federally regulated crypto custody services. The approval moves Coinbase closer to operating as a federally regulated custodian pending final compliance review.
Senators and the White House have reached a tentative agreement to resolve the contentious stablecoin yield restrictions in the CLARITY Act, though the compromise has drawn mixed reactions from the crypto industry. Coinbase reportedly continues to oppose the updated draft language despite the agreement.
Revolut has started rolling out EURR, its first euro-backed stablecoin, to selected customers in three countries. Bridge serves as the regulated issuer, with €374 outstanding compared to Circle's EURC at €394.5 million.
