Circle held its third-quarter earnings call on November 4, 2026. This article selects the Q&A segment from seven Wall Street research firms with the management, covering topics such as the distribution economic model of USDC, cooperation with Binance, Arc, CPN, and the long-term development of stablecoins. The content is based on the original transcript of the earnings call, with the translation only providing language and formatting organization, without adding additional viewpoints.

Key Summary

•　Expanding the distribution and liquidity advantages of USDC: Deepening cooperation with leading platforms like Binance, Coinbase, and Hyperliquid, expanding the usage scale of USDC through distribution incentives, and leveraging liquidity and network effects to drive long-term volume growth.

•　Lowering the adoption threshold for traditional financial institutions: By providing blockchain infrastructure that meets institutional safety, compliance, and operational requirements through Arc, masking the underlying technical complexities via CPN, and integrating into existing corporate treasury systems, enabling institutions to use the digital dollar without having to rebuild business processes.

•　Establishing a collaborative network among USDC, CPN, and Arc: Gradually migrating CPN payment and settlement activities to Arc, driving financial institutions to adopt Arc, and expanding applications such as asset tokenization, real-time foreign exchange, and AI Agent, thereby further creating demand for the digital dollar.

•　Driving new business commercialization and revenue diversification: CPN has started charging fees on certain payment volumes, expecting to contribute significant revenue in 2027; Arc plans to realize value through PoS staking rewards, token sales, and ecosystem incentives.

•　Shifting from expanding payment scale to increasing fund retention: Not aiming to replicate the high fees of the traditional payment industry, but rather reducing unit transaction costs, improving capital turnover efficiency, while promoting USDC's use from payment intermediary assets to operating funds, investments, and loans, increasing fund retention in the network.

Highlights of this article

01

How far is blockchain from becoming mainstream financial infrastructure?

02

How are Circle and Binance distributing benefits in their new cooperation? Will recent security events impact the collaboration?

07

How is Circle engaging in the AI Agent payment market?

01

CITI

Citi: How far is blockchain from becoming mainstream financial infrastructure?

QUESTION

Q｜Pete Christiansen (Citi)

Jeremy Allaire, when you launched Arc, you mentioned that the "Spectacle Era" of the crypto industry is over, and we are entering a new phase: blockchain will gradually retreat into the background, becoming the underlying infrastructure of the financial system. Considering USDC, CPN, Arc, Agent Stack, and corporate collaborations, where do you believe the industry has the largest gap from this vision? What is the biggest bottleneck that Circle is currently spending the most time and resources trying to address?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire (Circle Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman)

This is a great question. In fact, we are frequently asked similar questions: What conditions need to be met for these applications serving the mainstream market to be scaled? The good news is that each quarter, we can see more and more progress. Just look at the companies currently developing on Arc and compare it to a year or two ago to feel how significant the change is. Leading global banks, capital market institutions, payment companies, and asset management firms—core institutions of the mainstream financial system—are actively participating today. They are not only operating relevant infrastructure but also developing products and building businesses on it. This is a fundamental shift.

Of course, this is just the starting point for mass adoption, which is what I referred to at the beginning of the call—the digital dollar is entering a crucial phase in the mainstream market.

So, what have we been doing? First, establishing the correct infrastructure to make the digital dollar a regulated, foundational currency in the U.S. and global financial systems. We have accomplished this.

Second, creating specifically designed infrastructure for traditional financial institutions that meets their requirements in terms of prudent regulatory standards, security, functionality, scalability, and economic models. Over the past two years, we've been building this infrastructure through Arc. We have achieved this as well. Third, we are masking the complexity of underlying technology. If an institution wants to access the network and transfer funds, it shouldn't have to handle compliance, blockchain, custody, and fiat infrastructure issues on its own. It should be able to transfer funds directly and smoothly. This is exactly the capability we are building through CPN.

Everything we do is to make these applications truly possible.

In fact, just in this quarter, we've seen many exciting developments, some of which weren't even mentioned in today's call. For example, Lloyds Bank has started using USDC for cross-border payment settlements; Visa has integrated USDC into its global funds transfer platform Visa Direct, providing funding in USDC; Walmart's fintech subsidiary OnePay has increased support for USDC; Samsung has also begun integrating USDC into its phones and mobile wallets. These are all important milestones. If you think back to when Circle first went public a year and a half ago, any one of these developments would have been a major event in the industry. But now, similar things are happening almost weekly, if not monthly.

So, I believe we are beginning to see this vision gradually come to fruition, which excites me greatly.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Fox-Geen (Circle CFO)

These cases perfectly reflect the network effects we've been emphasizing. We have built the broadest U.S. dollar stablecoin distribution network, along with the deepest liquidity in both the primary and secondary markets.

These capabilities take time to accumulate and require ongoing investment. For years, we have been investing and building towards this. As the market enters a new phase of development, these investments are starting to pay off, putting us in a very advantageous position for future growth.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

Pete, I want to add one more point that I think is important. The entire trend of asset tokenization essentially involves bringing financial contracts from the existing financial system onto the chain, allowing them to take advantage of on-chain infrastructure in terms of liquidity, trading, and innovation.

This process is advancing rapidly. We continuously see new project announcements and the gradual establishment of relevant regulatory frameworks, with progress being made across the board. This signifies that the digital asset industry is entering a new phase.

In the last quarter, we discussed how much of the digital asset trading volume is shifting towards these real-world assets (RWAs). I believe this will become an extremely important trend in the future. Next, you will see Circle engaging in extensive work in this area, including layouts on Arc and initiatives related to our digital asset business.

Thank you for your question, Pete.

02

GOLDMAN SACHS

Goldman Sachs: How are Circle and Binance distributing benefits in their new cooperation? Will recent security events impact the cooperation?

QUESTION

Q｜James Yaro (Goldman Sachs)

I would like to ask about the cooperation between Circle and Binance. Could you talk about the main considerations for this updated cooperation agreement, and, within the range you are willing to disclose, describe the economic interests arrangement for both parties? Additionally, will the recent events occurring at Binance impact the cooperation?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

This is a great question. We have not disclosed the specific economic terms of this cooperation separately. Overall, this is a partnership covering marketing, distribution, and products. Binance has strong economic incentives to promote, distribute, and integrate USDC as the primary digital dollar across the platform. We have already seen these collaborations being implemented, which is very positive progress.

Regarding the economic impact of this cooperation on the overall business, Jeremy Fox-Geen can add further insights. From our perspective, Binance has hundreds of millions of users, covering some of the most important key markets globally. Being able to establish USDC as a core asset on such a platform represents a huge opportunity. We are very excited about the future development of this cooperation.

As for the recent events, we are currently in an era of escalating cyberattacks. Whether from organized crime, nation-state attackers, or other actors, AI-assisted cyberattacks are increasing at an astonishing rate. We are highly vigilant about this, and I believe everyone on this call is as well. The digital asset industry, in particular, is susceptible to attacks, as some digital assets have characteristics of anonymity, making them very attractive to malicious actors.

The amount involved in last week’s security incident was indeed substantial. However, I believe that the handling and response of Circle, law enforcement, and relevant industry participants have been very proactive. From this perspective, it’s a positive signal.

Binance remains an extremely influential platform with strong liquidity, distribution capabilities, and market coverage. Although Binance faced some withdrawal pressure following the incident, we saw approximately $2.5 billion of net inflow to Binance within the last 24 hours. I believe that after a brief market shock, users are starting to return. Of course, we will continue to closely monitor further developments.

James, we also noted your recent research report discussing how such events may impact the perceptions of regulators, financial institutions, and other market participants regarding the digital asset industry. We are very attentive to this issue as well. I believe that global regulators will certainly enhance their scrutiny of cybersecurity and security infrastructure, and this regulation will not be limited to digital asset exchanges, but will cover all financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs.

We are entering a cybersecurity era that is drastically different from the past. Given the potential risks and impacts, I anticipate that we will see more regulatory requirements in this field.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Fox-Geen

I want to further elaborate on the economic model of this cooperation. At a strategic level, we have repeatedly emphasized that we want to incentivize the most important platforms in the digital asset ecosystem to actively adopt and promote USDC. Coinbase was one of our earliest distribution partners and is one of Circle's founding partners. Now, we are forming similar partnerships with Hyperliquid, Binance, and other platforms.

We want these platforms to have sufficient motivation to promote USDC because we believe, and historical experience has shown, that the more active USDC activities are on these platforms, the more likely it is that the overall usage scale and volume of the USDC ecosystem will grow, including those USDC that are not stored within high-incentive cooperative platforms. We have seen this model succeed in the past and believe that this effect will further strengthen in the future.

As for the specific economic terms, we have not disclosed the details of the Binance agreement separately. However, as I mentioned in introducing our annual performance guidance, after excluding the revenue from the Arc Token presale, we expect the annual RLDC Margin to be close to the midpoint of the original guidance range at the beginning of the year. You can backtrack from this information to roughly calculate how much we anticipate the profit margin will decline in the fourth quarter. This decline reflects the impact of the new incentive agreement with Binance being fully accounted for in the fourth quarter.

03

CLEAR STREET

Clear Street: With the rise of AI Agent economics, how is Circle engaging in the payment market between machines?

QUESTION

Q｜Owen Lau (Clear Street)

I would like to ask about Agentic Commerce (AI Agent-driven commercial activities). The market has recently focused on AI personal assistants like Muse and Instinct. We've noticed that some AI assistants use traditional payment networks while others process payments through blockchain. Could you further introduce how Circle plans to collaborate with these AI assistants and their endpoint services to promote the adoption of USDC?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

This is a great question, Owen. I want to talk about this from several angles. First, how AI Agents hold assets, transact, and what services they will pay for is still in very early stages. In the first wave of consumer-facing AI Agent applications, such as personal assistants that help users shop, connecting to existing debit card products and traditional card payment networks is a very natural starting step. However, we have two levels of judgment regarding future development.

Firstly, the moment when AI Agent payment and economic activities will significantly scale will be when Agents start paying each other. At that time, different Agents will collaborate and complete tasks, and the Agents themselves will become independent participants in economic activities. In such a scenario, the form of value exchange will be very different from today. Transaction amounts may be much smaller, and transaction structures may also change. For example, Agents may need to reach certain agreements or transactional arrangements among themselves, which need to be automatically executed programmatically through technologies like smart contracts.

This will bring a massive change, and we are building an entire end-to-end infrastructure for this. Meanwhile, Circle already possesses the leading fiat interoperability infrastructure in the world. Therefore, we will also ensure that AI Agents built or integrated on Arc can connect smoothly with the traditional fiat financial system. This is a direction we take very seriously.

Secondly, the network effects formed by USDC and its related infrastructure are beginning to manifest in the AI Agent space. For example, Stripe recently launched a new Agent Wallet that has been integrated into personal AI Agents like Instinct. The way it operates is quite interesting: when users recharge the wallet, the funds are actually held in the form of USDC in the digital wallet. Subsequently, this USDC can be used both for debit card transactions and directly for other payments. The development team released some excellent technical articles last week that introduced this mechanism.

I believe this structure has tremendous potential. On-chain currency can serve as a value storage tool for AI Agents while possessing highly flexible payment capabilities. Agents can transact at high speed with other Agents through the on-chain network as well as complete payments through traditional debit card networks when needed. This once again highlights the strengths of Circle's existing network. Today, the largest debit card payment networks in the globe already support USDC settlement, so related settlement channels have effectively been established. Products like Link Wallet or Link Agent Wallet can settle using USDC with debit card networks or transact directly on-chain using USDC. We are entering the AI Agent economy in many different ways, and these application scenarios are continually expanding.

Thank you for your question.

04

COMPASS POINT

Compass Point: Why have Circle's distribution costs decreased? Does the new Binance protocol involve any upfront fees?

QUESTION

Q｜Ed Engel (Compass Point)

We have noticed that despite the increase in related income from Coinbase, and the cooperation agreement with Hyperliquid being effective, Circle's overall distribution costs in this quarter have actually decreased. Could you explain what factors primarily drove the decrease in distribution costs through non-Coinbase channels? Additionally, just a quick question: does the renewed cooperation agreement with Binance involve any upfront fees?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Fox-Geen

Firstly, the new cooperation agreement with Binance does not involve any upfront fees. As for the changes in distribution costs, we will not disclose the specific revenue and expenditure details of each distribution agreement. As we have mentioned multiple times before, Circle has distribution cooperation with many platforms, and the scale of USDC balances and incentive amounts involved in different agreements may fluctuate quarterly.

However, we can see some changes from this quarter's net reserve yield. We mentioned at the beginning of the call that the net reserve yield decreased quarter-on-quarter, mainly due to the impact of the Hyperliquid cooperation agreement, while the related USDC balances are actually held at Coinbase. Combining this information, you can roughly infer the resulting impacts.

05

NEEDHAM

Needham: Are AI-driven cyber attacks becoming a systemic risk for on-chain finance?

QUESTION

Q｜John Todaro (Needham)

I want to follow up on the security issues mentioned by Goldman Sachs earlier. From our perspective, the risk of cyber attacks, especially AI-driven attacks, could be the biggest challenge facing on-chain digital assets in 2027. Should this incident serve as a wake-up call for the entire industry? Is there a way for the industry to establish some form of collaborative mechanism? What measures do you believe the industry can take to more effectively respond to such risks? While Circle itself may experience relatively limited direct impact, if users begin withdrawing assets in large amounts from exchanges, it would clearly affect Circle's collaborative relationship with trading platforms regarding USDC. Thus, I would like to understand Jeremy's views on the actions the industry should take in the future.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

The answer is undoubtedly yes. Cybersecurity threats have been evolving rapidly for some time now. I believe that to effectively address this issue, we need to tackle it simultaneously from three levels: underlying infrastructure, industry collaboration mechanisms, and the responses from governments and law enforcement. The key is to ensure that these three levels can operate in coordination.

At the infrastructure level, asset issuers like Circle need to have the capability to respond quickly in emergencies and collaborate with law enforcement to timely prevent criminals from transferring stolen assets. At the industry collaboration level, leading infrastructure companies, on-chain protocols, blockchain networks, exchanges, and custodians need to establish real-time monitoring and information communication channels for cybersecurity incidents and maintain coordination with blockchain forensic, data analytics, and other specialized service providers. We are already beginning to see such collaborative mechanisms gradually take shape, and more formalized, institutionalized industry cooperation organizations may emerge in the future.

At the government level, responding to large-scale cyber attacks and security threats driven by AI has become one of the most important challenges faced by countries around the world. This not only concerns the safety of the financial system but also involves critical infrastructure and many other domains. We see the impacts of these threats every day. Meanwhile, the speed of government responses is increasing. When security incidents occur, our cooperation and coordination capacity with major global law enforcement agencies is stronger than ever. These are all very important advancements.

However, I believe there is another issue worth noting, and it happens to relate to Arc. From its inception, Arc has integrated prudent regulatory and security standards into its underlying architecture. It is operated by a group of clearly identified participants, whose infrastructures need to comply with strict compliance and information security standards. In contrast, in completely open and permissionless blockchain networks, the identities of participants may not be ascertainable, and some necessary security responses may be difficult to execute. Therefore, there are different trade-offs in operational security assurances between the two infrastructure models, and the design goal of Arc is to provide a higher level of security guarantee.

When large financial institutions consider where to deploy assets, on which networks to run smart contracts, and through what infrastructures to exchange value, they will inevitably focus on one question: do these networks and underlying operating systems meet sufficiently strict security and operational standards? This is reminiscent of the early stages of cloud computing. Initially, the CIA or large banks would not easily deploy their systems to the cloud, but as cloud infrastructure standards matured, this began to change.

I believe blockchain infrastructure will undergo a similar transformation. This is one of the key reasons why we chose to design and operate Arc in its current manner. We believe that when blockchain truly becomes mainstream financial infrastructure, Arc will be better equipped to address related security risks and emergency response demands.

06

CANACCORD GENUITY

Canaccord Genuity: Will the adoption of stablecoins accelerate after the GENIUS Act comes into effect?

QUESTION

Q｜Joe Vafi (Canaccord Genuity)

I want to discuss the GENIUS Act further. You mentioned progress regarding the integration of corporate treasury management systems, etc. How aware do you think current Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies are about the application opportunities of stablecoins? As the GENIUS Act comes into effect, how do you expect the adoption of stablecoins by large enterprises to evolve over the next 6 to 12 months?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, we believe this is an extremely important turning point. If you are a large multinational corporation, a public company, or if you are the treasury head, CFO, or managing a regulated financial institution, you typically wouldn’t rashly integrate digital dollars into your existing business infrastructure before it is officially recognized as part of the financial system. Even if this technology is better, faster, lower cost, and can bring new innovations and application values, it is difficult to change this.

Therefore, the formal legal recognition of digital dollars and their incorporation into the financial system is a significant milestone. Moreover, several other important supportive measures are also progressing simultaneously. For example, the FASB, responsible for establishing accounting standards in the U.S., is nearing completion on accounting treatment standards for payment-type stablecoins issued and regulated under the GENIUS Act. This standard will provide an appropriate accounting framework for recognizing stablecoins as cash or cash equivalents, which is also very significant.

As these conditions gradually mature, treasury heads of companies will be able to genuinely evaluate the value of stablecoins based on technological advantages, including their safety as full reserve assets and capability for global circulation and usage. We have begun to see relevant discussions unfold, and with each passing quarter, more large enterprises are forming partnerships or exploring practical applications of stablecoins. Looking ahead to 2027, infrastructure, regulatory policies, liquidity, and integration with the global banking system will gradually be in place. I believe this will be an important year for mainstream companies to accelerate the integration of stablecoins into their daily operations. For Circle, promoting the adoption of digital dollars by large global enterprises is also becoming an increasingly important part of our expansion efforts.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Fox-Geen

I would like to add one more point. We have been communicating with CFOs and treasury heads of many large enterprises. For these companies, certain necessary conditions must first be met to genuinely start using digital dollars. Jeremy just mentioned several of these, including the clear legal status of digital dollars, their formal inclusion in the financial system, and the establishment of clear accounting and tax rules. Progress has already been made on the legal front, and other supportive rules are being advanced.

Another crucial condition is to make it possible for stablecoins to directly integrate with the existing systems companies already use. For instance, we have discussed the integration with SAP-related software and corporate treasury management systems. Companies' CFOs do not want to have to build parallel digital asset management processes just to enjoy the advantages brought by new technologies. Unless there is a very urgent business need, they typically would not do so. Previously, applications like cross-border payments have demonstrated such pressing demand, thus becoming early fields of stablecoin adoption.

Currently, these necessary systems are slowly being built and implemented, allowing companies to leverage the benefits of digital dollars more easily. We are optimistic about future developments.

07

WILLIAM BLAIR

William Blair: How does CPN achieve commercialization? How do Arc and USDC form a growth flywheel?

QUESTION

Q｜Andrew Jeffrey (William Blair)

Regarding the commercialization model of Arc, the content presented in the slides earlier was very helpful. I would like to understand the relationship between Arc and CPN further. We have seen a significant growth in the annual payment scale of CPN. Could you discuss the economic model and revenue model of CPN, and how it will interact with other businesses in the USDC ecosystem to form a growth flywheel? Additionally, when does Arc expect to transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism?

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

Of course. I mentioned earlier that we are very excited about the growth of CPN. From the last earnings call at the end of July to now, the annual payment scale of CPN has increased by 150%, which is an incredible development. As Arc officially launches, we will progressively migrate more CPN transactions and settlement activities to Arc. This will have multiple impacts: first, it will bring more transaction activities and asset flows to Arc and create fee revenue for the Arc network and its validators. Meanwhile, hundreds of financial institutions within the CPN network will gradually adopt Arc as the primary settlement infrastructure, further encouraging their use of Arc in other business scenarios.

In other words, CPN is not only able to directly bring transaction volumes to Arc but also helps financial institutions become familiar with and adopt Arc’s infrastructure, thus creating more potential application scenarios. Additionally, CPN itself is an important application scenario for USDC and EURC, continuously generating demand for stablecoin settlement. There is a mutually reinforcing relationship between these businesses.

Furthermore, Arc is also bringing some new application capabilities. For example, we have launched StableFX, a protocol operating on Arc that supports real-time foreign exchange and atomic swaps. It not only supports stablecoins issued by Circle but also accommodates stablecoins from about a dozen other currencies. As the liquidity of StableFX builds up, it will become an important underlying facility for CPN to achieve real-time foreign exchange, further enhancing the efficiency, speed, and cost-effectiveness of cross-border payments. StableFX itself also has an independent fee revenue model. These are the specific ways in which Arc, CPN, and the stablecoin business collaborate synergistically.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Fox-Geen

Jeremy just explained the network effects of Arc, CPN, and USDC, as well as how these growth flywheels reinforce each other. I will also address your question on the profitability model of CPN. We won't provide specific revenue guidance for 2027 at this time. However, as mentioned last quarter, we have started charging fees on a portion of CPN's payment traffic, and the commercialization of CPN will also be an important focus going forward. As the business scales up, the related revenue is expected to gradually increase.

In addition, with the acquisition of Tazapay expected to complete next year and its integration into CPN, we anticipate that CPN will begin contributing substantial revenue by 2027. We will provide more specifics when we release the 2027 revenue guidance in the next earnings call.

ANSWER

A｜Jeremy Allaire

Lastly, I want to add two very important points. First, our fundamental judgment on on-chain payment infrastructure is that digital dollars, stablecoins, and the protocols built around them will significantly reduce the marginal costs of value storage and transfer. Therefore, if someone directly takes traditional payment companies as a benchmark and thinks such businesses should earn 10–15 basis points, 20–30 basis points, or even 2% in fees, I believe that comparison is not suitable.

We do not intend to replicate the profit margin structure of traditional payment industries but rather hope to significantly lower payment costs. When this system truly scales, both the transaction volume and capital turnover speed will be considerable, while unit transaction costs will decrease significantly. This will benefit individuals, businesses, and families globally, which is the goal we wish to achieve.

Therefore, when establishing financial models, everyone should consider a system with massive transaction scales, strong network effects, fast capital turnover, but very low unit costs. This is the business model we are building.

Second, in addition to promoting commercialization, we also place great importance on how to keep funds truly retained in the network instead of merely completing transfers from fiat to fiat. We hope that merchants, businesses, and individuals in the network wish to continuously hold digital dollars, digital euros, and other digital assets, allowing these funds to genuinely stay within the system. The value of stablecoins should not only be reflected in payment processes. They can also become operating capital for enterprises, investable capital, and assets applicable for lending and other financial activities. These uses are also crucial for increasing the long-term demand for stablecoins. Thus, we not only care about how many payment transactions CPN can handle but also how much digital assets each participant in the network actually holds.

Currently, a典型模式 for stablecoin payments is the so-called Stablecoin Sandwich: users deposit fiat from one end of a bank account, complete cross-border transfers through the stablecoin network, and finally redeem back to fiat and enter the bank account at the other end. In fact, this quarter, the total issuance and redemption of USDC reached a record 208 billion dollars, indicating that this infrastructure can efficiently and quickly complete fund transfers. However, from a strategic perspective, we want to go further: on one hand, continue to reduce the unit costs of payments, on the other hand, expand the fund balances in the network, and increase the practical uses of these digital currencies themselves.

This is our basic understanding of the CPN business model and long-term strategy. Thank you for your question.

Source

Original: Circle Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call (November 4, 2026), Q&A session with institutional analysts.

Translation by: Hash Global Research. This article is a translated excerpt from the Q&A sessions of seven institutions, with some small pleasantries and procedural remarks removed; the management's views and forecasts do not represent Hash Global's position. For public reproduction and translation, please refer to the authorization requests of relevant rights holders.

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