In response to emerging stablecoin projects challenging the market with pitches centered on "returning all reserve income to users," Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) Chief Business Officer Kash Razzaghi has stepped forward to clarify misconceptions, publicly disclosing USDC's real financial ledger to counter accusations that issuers enjoy monopoly profits. The move is intended to show the market that in building a global-grade digital dollar, compliance costs and ecosystem profit-sharing are the core logic, not simple interest retention.
In the first half of 2026, USDC completed more than $36 trillion in on-chain transaction settlement volume, while Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) minted and redeemed hundreds of billions of dollars in fiat funds. Behind this massive scale is a digital dollar system running fully in production: trillions in global clearing capacity, tens of billions in seamless fiat on- and off-ramp mechanisms, and fully equivalent cash and cash-equivalent reserves held at regulated financial institutions worldwide.
Recently, however, new entrants have claimed they can build more "practical" stablecoins, with rhetoric that uniformly accuses traditional issuers of monopolizing reserve income and promises to generously return interest to users. This marketing narrative fundamentally distorts how USDC operates and severely underestimates the enormous infrastructure costs required to sustain a global-scale, production-grade digital dollar.
As Circle Internet Corp.'s (CRCL.US) business head, Kash Razzaghi stressed that three basic facts must be clarified: for years Circle has consistently shared the vast majority of USDC's economic returns with the ecosystem partners that drive its adoption; all customers can redeem USDC for free through standard banking channels, with funds typically settled within two business days; and by core metrics, USDC is the most liquid stablecoin on the market, with its lead over competitors continuing to widen.
Data compiled by Woofun AI shows that Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) generated about $1.4 billion in total revenue in the first half of 2026, of which it paid roughly $819 million directly to distribution channel partners—a figure accounting for nearly 60% of the company's total revenue. Of the remaining revenue, Circle reinvested the vast majority back into network infrastructure. It spent about $473 million in the first half, equivalent to 34 cents of every revenue dollar going toward technology research and development, security and risk controls, compliance reviews, and global license acquisition.
After deducting all these necessary expenses, Circle Internet Corp.'s (CRCL.US) own net income was only about $108 million, for a net profit margin of just about 7%. This financial structure clearly shows that USDC's real revenue distribution does not flow to a single entity, but instead incentivizes the ecosystem through a high proportion of profit-sharing and maintains system stability through heavy reinvestment. Such intensive capital reinvestment is by no means ordinary administrative expense; it is precisely the foundation that gives USDC its ultimate utility value, crystallizing more than eight years of deep accumulation by Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US).
A digital dollar cannot operate in a vacuum. It requires compliance and clearing networks across global jurisdictions, automated monitoring technology compliant with anti-money laundering laws, top-tier treasury management and liquidity buffers, and deep system integration with traditional financial giants such as Visa (V.US), Stripe, and Mastercard (MA.US).
The industry's real core issue has never been "whether reserve income should flow to businesses built on top of the stablecoin," because USDC's financial ledger has already proved with ironclad facts that returns have long been flowing to partners on a large scale. The real question is whether an issuer possesses the comprehensive capability both to build a business model that shares results with partners and to bear the enormous costs needed to maintain global financial-grade credibility. This capability forms USDC's unbreakable moat, enabling it to operate steadily in a complex global regulatory environment.
The commercial profit-sharing mechanism follows adoption scale: partners that bring the most USDC incremental growth earn the most. Coinbase (COIN.US), as Circle Internet Corp.'s (CRCL.US) largest strategic partner, has long enjoyed substantial revenue sharing under transparent agreements between the two sides. But Coinbase is only one member of Circle's vast partner network. In September this year, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, signed a five-year strategic agreement with Circle to deeply integrate USDC into the Binance platform, providing seamless global stablecoin services to its hundreds of millions of users.
Overall, the model for partners participating in the USDC economic system is very clear, mainly through two paths: first, bringing in and expanding balances to earn durable returns—distribution partners that hold and continuously grow USDC deposits on their own platforms can directly receive proportional reserve income sharing; the larger the scale they bring in and the longer the funds stay, the richer the profit-sharing they receive; second, building businesses on the platform and enjoying zero-cost instant redemption—business customers that move funds through the Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) Payments Network (CPN) or build businesses on the Circle developer platform can enjoy large-scale, fee-free redemption at industry-leading efficiency.
Misinformation about USDC redemption fees has caused the most confusion in the market. The operating principle is that every Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) customer can redeem USDC for free; redemptions through standard bank clearing channels never incur any fees, and funds usually arrive safely within at most two business days. At the same time, the Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) Payments Network (CPN) supports near-instant, free settlement; enterprise customers that use USDC as a core settlement layer and move payment flows through CPN can now enjoy near-instant fiat fund settlement completely free of charge. Eligible platform customers can unlock near-instant free redemption privileges, for example by maintaining a certain scale of USDC deposits on the platform or using Circle's custodial wallet service.
The reason this ultra-fast settlement capability can be achieved is the internal liquidity buffer pool built through heavy investment. Completing billions of dollars in fund redemption at near-instant speed during bank closures or across time zones requires the issuer to bear capital costs itself to advance liquidity. If certain speculative customers demand unconditional withdrawal of huge amounts of cash at lightning speed outside bank business hours while participating in no ecosystem building, charging a very low service fee for such niche special requests is a reasonable measure to maintain fairness and security of the system.
Circle Internet Corp. (CRCL.US) has fully weathered these tests over the past eight years, holding more than 55 compliant financial licenses and registrations globally, including a U.S. OCC national trust bank charter, and being among the first in Europe to fully pass compliance review under the extremely stringent MiCA stablecoin regulations. USDC's business model is a mutually beneficial ecosystem flywheel: the vast majority of economic benefits are returned directly to the ecosystem partners that drive its adoption, while the remaining capital is firmly reinvested in technology infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and the global liquidity network—precisely why it has become an unshakable cornerstone of value in the global digital economy.
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