Key Takeaways

• Circle’s Q3 revenue rose 17% to $865M, while net income increased 5% to $226M.

• A $182M ARC token presale helped offset an 8% decline in USDC reserve income.

• Circle also cut its workforce by about 5%, taking $9.15M in restructuring charges.

Circle Posts $226M Q3 Profit

Circle’s newest blockchain token played an unusually large role in its latest earnings.

The USDC issuer reported $865 million in Q3 revenue and reserve income, up 17% from a year earlier. Net income from continuing operations increased 5% to $226 million, while adjusted EBITDA jumped 85% to $317 million.

Yet the strongest growth did not come from Circle’s traditional reserve business.

Other revenue surged 627% to $207 million, driven largely by $182 million from the ARC token presale. Reserve income, meanwhile, declined 8% to $658 million after the company’s reserve return rate fell 61 basis points to 3.5%.

Circle also reduced its workforce by approximately 5% during the quarter, noting that it was aligning staffing with its operating model and strategic priorities. The restructuring produced about $9.15 million in charges, primarily covering severance, notice-period compensation, employee benefits, and related costs.

ARC Token Adds a New Earnings Engine

Circle launched the Arc network public mainnet on Sept. 16, completing the genesis mint of 10 billion ARC tokens. ARC is expected to support security, utility, and governance as the network transitions toward proof of stake in 2027.

The presale helped Circle diversify away from its heavy dependence on interest generated by USDC reserves. That matters as lower rates threaten one of the crypto company’s largest revenue streams.

Still, investors will need to assess how repeatable token-sale income will be in future quarters.

USDC Volume Climbs Despite Flat Q3 Supply

Average USDC circulation rose 8% year over year to $73.3 billion, while quarter-end supply was largely unchanged at $73.9 billion. Onchain USDC transaction volume climbed 49% to $13.9 trillion. Circle also minted and redeemed $104 billion during the quarter in each direction.

USDC held directly across Circle’s platform increased 36% to $13.9 billion. However, its share of the fiat-backed stablecoin market fell to 27%, down 183 basis points from a year earlier.

Distribution and transaction costs declined 8% to $412 million, helping lift Circle’s revenue-less-distribution-cost margin to 52%.

Payments Push Moves Beyond Stablecoins

Circle’s payments network reached $41.3 billion in annualized transaction volume during the quarter. The company also agreed to acquire Tazapay, a Singapore-based payments provider handling more than $25 billion in annualized volume across over 100 markets.

CEO Jeremy Allaire said institutions are increasingly building on USDC, citing commercial deployments with Visa, Binance, and enterprise payments providers.

We launched Arc with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders. Together, we’re building the financial and economic infrastructure of the internet, and a world where people, businesses, and AI agents all transact onchain.

The quarter showed that USDC remains the foundation of Circle’s business. But the $182 million ARC presale also revealed how aggressively the company is building new crypto revenue streams beyond reserve income.