Circle has opened its books on the most contested question in stablecoins: how much of USDC's income actually stays with Circle. The issuer disclosed that roughly $819 million of the roughly $1.4 billion it took in between January and June flowed to distributors and the transaction costs of moving the token — around 59% of top-line revenue. The disclosure came this week from chief commercial officer Kash Razzaghi, framed as an answer to what Circle described as recent competitors arguing that established issuers retain too much of the reserve income and overcharge for redemptions.
The rest of the breakdown is where the real information sits. Circle allocated about $473 million — just over a third of revenue — to licences, banking partnerships, settlement liquidity, compliance, product work and chain integrations. After both buckets, the company kept net profit equivalent to roughly 7% of revenue.
Seven cents. That is the entire margin left on the dollar once the network gets paid and the compliance bills get paid.
Razzaghi's counter to rivals promising partners the bulk of the income: a token that hands everything back cannot pay for the infrastructure that makes it work at scale.
Why it matters
The argument is really about who owns the customer relationship, and the figures show how concentrated that leverage has become. Coinbase is the largest USDC distributor — its average USDC balances across its product suite touched a record $20 billion in Q2, a level 44% above the same quarter last year. Yet the exchange also backs Open USD, a rival network that channels reserve income to participating partners after taking a management fee. Circle's biggest revenue-sharing partner is therefore funding the model built to cut Circle's share.
This is the structural bind of any dominant issuer. Circle's own figures put USDC's first-half on-chain settlement volume above $36 trillion, and its share of stablecoin transfers hit about 77% in June, compared with 60% the previous June. More than 150 partners now take part in the network's economics. But incentives run both ways: partners that hold and expand USDC balances collect a portion of the interest those balances generate, and a rival consortium dangling a larger portion only has to pay for an integration.
Binance shows the other play. The exchange agreed a commercial pact with Circle running five years, signed in September, alongside a $100 million equity stake — locking its incentives to USDC for half a decade instead of shopping for a fatter split. For context on how Binance is positioning right now, see Binance US's $100M raise at a $1B valuation and the Binance exchange hub.
| USDC network figure | Value | As disclosed |
|---|---|---|
| First-half revenue | ~$1.4B | January–June 2026 |
| To partners + transaction costs | ~$819M, ~59% | per revenue dollar |
| First-half on-chain settlement | >$36T | company figure |
| June share of stablecoin transfers | 77%, versus 60% in June 2025 | company figure |
| Coinbase Q2 average USDC held | $20B, +44% YoY | Coinbase filing via Circle |
| Partners sharing the economics | 150+ | Circle statement on X |
| Binance equity commitment | $100M + 5-year pact, Sept | company disclosure |
What to watch
- Balance migration risk. Coinbase publicly backing Open USD is one thing; what moves Circle's revenue is whether those USDC balances — the record $20 billion average — start leaking to rival networks.
- Transfer share versus supply share. A 77% share of June transfers looks commanding, but fee income follows circulating balances earning reserve interest, not transfers. The supply-share number is the one to track.
- Binance's USDC push. With a five-year agreement and $100 million of equity on the line, Binance has monthly incentives tied to USDC distribution — watch whether its USDC volumes respond.
- The rate backdrop. Circle's whole revenue model rides on short-term rates earned by reserve assets. With the Fed hawkish after September's 25bp hike and an October decision on the calendar, each basis point changes the size of the pool everyone is fighting over.
MarketRadar take
Neutral for USDC as infrastructure — $36 trillion-plus in settlement and a 77% transfer share describe a network that is entrenched, not a narrative. Bearish for Circle's take-rate, because this disclosure effectively admits where the pricing power lives: with distributors like Coinbase, which are now openly backing a rival offering them more. The figure that matters from here is not volume but balance share — if Coinbase's $20 billion drifts toward Open USD, the 59% line only gets harder to defend.
