Circle defends USDC revenue share as Open USD courts partners

Key points

• Circle says it kept about 7 cents of profit per revenue dollar in H1 2026
• About $819M of roughly $1.4B revenue went to distribution and transaction costs
• Open USD, backed by Coinbase, Stripe and BlackRock, passes reserve income to partners
• Circle says standard USDC redemptions are free, settling within about two business days

Circle is defending how it shares USDC revenue with partners as a rival network backed by its largest distributor, Coinbase, offers participants a share of reserve income. In a blog post dated Friday, Circle said it kept about 7 cents of net profit for every dollar of revenue in the first half of 2026, according to CoinDesk.

The post, “The Economics of USDC and Why Our Partners Win”, was written by Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi. The figures are Circle’s own and have not been independently audited in the post.

How Circle says it spends USDC revenue

Circle said it generated about $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of the year. Of that, roughly $819 million, or about 59 cents per dollar, went to distribution partners and transaction costs. Another $473 million, about 34 cents per dollar, was reinvested in licenses, banking relationships, liquidity, compliance and blockchain integrations, according to the post. CoinDesk reported that this spending included about $214 million in stock-based compensation and related costs.

Razzaghi argued that reserve income has to fund redemption, compliance and resilience, and that those costs remain even if an issuer chooses not to pay partners. Circle also said it shares the majority of USDC’s economics with the partners that drive adoption, and that more than 150 partners besides Coinbase take part.

Circle cited Coinbase’s own reporting that average USDC held in Coinbase products reached a record $20 billion in the second quarter, up 44% from a year earlier. In September, Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement with Circle and invested $100 million in the company, the post said.

The rival models: Open USD and Global Dollar

The post does not name Open USD directly, CoinDesk noted. The network was unveiled in June with backing from Coinbase, Stripe and BlackRock, and its OUSD token is now live. According to CoinDesk, it lets businesses mint and redeem without fees and passes reserve income to participants after deducting a management fee. CoinDesk also pointed to the Paxos-led Global Dollar Network, which issues USDG and likewise shares reserve income with participants.

The competition matters because Circle’s business depends heavily on reserve income. Under the existing arrangement disclosed in Circle’s S-1 filing, Coinbase receives half of the residual revenue from USDC reserves, according to a Decrypt report on the filing. Coinbase now sits on both sides of the question: it earns from USDC and backs a network designed to pass more income to those who hold and distribute the token.

Redemption terms and Circle’s other arguments

Circle said all of its customers can redeem USDC for dollars free of charge over standard banking rails, with settlement typically taking up to two business days. Customers who qualify on the Circle Payments Network or Circle Platform can redeem free in near real time, around the clock. Circle said it bears the cost of holding liquid cash at partner banks to make that possible.

The company also pointed to scale and compliance. It said USDC settled more than $36 trillion in onchain volume in the first half of 2026, and that it minted and redeemed over $315 billion, roughly $1.7 billion a day. Circle put USDC’s share of global stablecoin transaction volume at about 77% in June, up from 60% a year earlier. It cited more than 55 licenses and registrations, including a U.S. national trust bank charter and compliance with the European Union’s MiCA rules, as well as reserves held in a BlackRock-managed government money market fund custodied at BNY.

What to watch

The disclosures show how much of USDC’s revenue already goes to distribution and how narrow Circle’s remaining margin is. Whether partners move volume toward networks that offer a larger pass-through will depend on terms that rivals have not fully detailed publicly. Coinbase’s agreement with Circle also has renewal provisions tied to performance thresholds, according to the Decrypt report’s coverage of the filing, which could shape future negotiations.