Author: Kash Razzaghi (Chief Business Officer of Circle)
Compiled by: TechFlow
**TechFlow Introduction:** In the first half of 2026, USDC achieved a staggering $36 trillion in total on-chain settlement volume, with minting and redemption volumes reaching hundreds of billions of dollars. However, a large number of new stablecoin projects have recently emerged in the market, challenging USDC with the slogan that "issuers enjoy windfall monopoly profits, and new projects will fully return reserve income." Facing market noise and malicious misinterpretation, Circle Chief Business Officer Kash Razzaghi publicly laid out USDC's true financial ledger in full. Official data shows that of the $1.4 billion in total revenue Circle generated in the first half of 2026, as much as $819 million (nearly 60%) was directly shared with the ecosystem channel partners that drive its adoption; after deducting $473 million for global regulatory licenses, compliance networks, and real-time liquidity reinvestment, Circle's own net profit margin was only a thin 7%. This article directly responds one by one to the controversy over redemption fees and reveals what the irreplaceable moat truly is behind building a digital dollar accepted by the world's top-tier financial system.
The massive scale of a production-grade digital dollar and the misreading by new entrants
In the first half of 2026, USDC completed more than $36 trillion in on-chain transaction settlement volume, and Circle minted and redeemed hundreds of billions of dollars in fiat funds. These are the real numbers behind a digital dollar fully deployed in a production environment: trillions in global clearing, tens of billions in seamless fiat inflows and outflows, and fully matched cash and cash-equivalent reserves held at regulated financial institutions around the world.
However, recently a number of new entrants have emerged in the market, claiming they can build a more "practical" stablecoin. Their pitch is invariably the same: they accuse traditional issuers of monopolizing all reserve income, while they are willing to generously return interest to ecosystem partners and users.
This marketing narrative may seem attractive, but it fundamentally distorts how USDC actually operates today and severely underestimates the enormous infrastructure costs required to maintain a global-scale, production-grade digital dollar.
As Circle's business leader, my team and I personally handle negotiations and partnerships with the world's top wallets, exchanges, and multinational financial institutions to bring USDC to the world. Before going into details, I must first clarify three basic facts:
• For many years, Circle has consistently shared the vast majority of USDC economic returns directly with the ecosystem partners that drive its adoption.
• All Circle customers can always redeem USDC free of charge through standard banking channels, with funds typically settling within two business days.
• Measured by the core metrics that matter to businesses, USDC is indisputably the most useful and most liquid stablecoin on the market, and the gap with competitors continues to widen.
Breakdown of USDC's real revenue distribution: nearly 60% shared, net profit only 7%
In the first half of 2026, Circle generated approximately $1.4 billion in total revenue, of which as much as approximately $819 million was paid directly to distribution channel partners as revenue sharing, accounting for nearly 60% of the company's total revenue.
Of the remaining revenue, we reinvested the vast majority back into building out the entire network infrastructure. Circle spent approximately $473 million in the first half of the year, equivalent to 34 cents of every dollar of revenue being used for technology R&D, security and risk control, compliance review, and global license acquisition. After deducting all these necessary expenses, Circle's own net income was only approximately $108 million, with a net profit margin of only about 7%.
Figure 1: Breakdown of USDC's real revenue distribution structure in the first half of 2026. Total revenue of approximately $1.4 billion, of which as much as $819 million (58.5%) was shared with ecosystem partners, $473 million (33.8%) was reinvested in network infrastructure and global licenses, and Circle's own net profit was only approximately $108 million (7.7%).
Massive reinvestment is not redundant spending, but an impregnable moat
This high-intensity capital reinvestment is by no means ordinary administrative expense; it is precisely the foundation that gives USDC its ultimate utility, embodying more than 8 years of deep accumulation by Circle. A digital dollar cannot operate out of thin air: it requires compliance and clearing networks across jurisdictions around the world, 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, Stripe, and Mastercard.
Therefore, the real core issue in the industry has never been "whether reserve income should flow to businesses built on top of stablecoins." USDC's financial ledger has already proven with ironclad facts that returns have long been flowing to partners at scale. The real key is whether an issuer has the comprehensive capability to both build a business model that shares results with partners and bear the enormous costs required to maintain global financial-grade credibility.
How partners share in USDC returns: Coinbase and Binance as examples
The commercial revenue-sharing mechanism follows adoption scale: partners that bring the most USDC incremental growth to the market earn the most generous returns. Coinbase, as our largest strategic partner, has long enjoyed substantial revenue sharing under a transparent agreement between the two parties.
But Coinbase is only one member of Circle's vast partner network. In September of 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:
• Bring in and expand balance scale to earn lasting returns: Distribution partners that hold and continuously expand USDC deposit scale on their own platforms can directly receive proportional reserve income sharing. The larger the scale they bring in and the longer it remains deposited, the more generous the revenue sharing they receive.
• Build businesses on the platform and enjoy zero-cost instant redemption: Business customers that move funds through the Circle Payments Network (CPN) or build businesses on the Circle developer platform can enjoy large-value, fee-free redemption with industry-leading efficiency.
Clarifying the redemption mechanism: free as standard and the truth about near-real-time settlement
Misinformation about USDC redemption fees has caused the most confusion in the market, so I must accurately break down its operating principles here. The world's top payment networks, including Visa and Stripe, rely on Circle every day for frictionless large-value clearing:
• Every Circle customer can redeem USDC free of charge: Redemption operations through standard banking clearing channels never charge any fees, and funds typically arrive securely within at most two business days.
• The Circle Payments Network (CPN) supports near-real-time free settlement: Enterprise customers that use USDC as their core settlement layer and move payment flows through CPN can now enjoy near-real-time fiat fund clearing completely free of charge.
• Eligible platform customers can unlock near-real-time free redemption privileges: Circle platform customers can obtain near-real-time free redemption quotas through various means, such as maintaining a certain scale of USDC deposits on the platform or using Circle's custodial wallet services.
The reason this ultra-fast settlement capability can be achieved is that its core support lies in the internal liquidity buffer pool we have invested heavily to build. Being able to complete billions of dollars in fund redemption at near-real-time speed during bank closures or cross-time-zone clearing requires the issuer to bear the capital cost of advancing liquidity itself. If certain speculative customers demand unconditional lightning-fast withdrawal of huge amounts of cash 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 system fairness and security.
Flywheel effect: building a digital dollar trusted by the world's top-tier finance
Any institution evaluating a stablecoin business model should look beyond flashy marketing gimmicks and ask a deeper set of questions: When a crisis comes, can this issuer withstand the shock of cross-border judicial regulation? Can they maintain 1:1 redemption under extreme liquidity runs? Do they have legitimate licenses and credibility with the world's top central banks and regulators?Circle has fully navigated these tests over the past 8 years. We hold more than 55 compliant financial licenses and registrations globally, including a U.S. OCC national trust bank charter, and were among the first in Europe to fully pass the extremely rigorous MiCA stablecoin regulatory compliance review.
In summary, the USDC business model is a mutually beneficial ecosystem flywheel: the vast majority of economic benefits flow directly back to the ecosystem partners that drive its adoption, while the remaining capital is steadfastly reinvested in technical infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and the global liquidity network. It is precisely this rigor and foresight that have made USDC an unshakable cornerstone of value in the global digital economy.