Binance drops $100M to invest in Circle CRCL It’s written in black and white in the SEC 8-K: Binance privately purchased 1.237 million shares at $80.84 per share, a 14% discount from market price, with a two-year lock-up—no selling, no hedging allowed. At the same time, they signed a five-year long-term agreement: Circle will pay Binance incentive fees based on the USDC balance in Binance wallets (fee rate undisclosed), and Binance promises to push USDC with perks like fee reductions and better yields on savings products. This isn’t Binance investing in Circle—it’s clearly Circle paying Binance channel fees, and even throwing in some discounted shares to sweeten the deal. The stablecoin business is all about scale because the profit doesn’t come from transaction fees but from reserve interest. For every additional $1 USDC in circulation, Circle puts the corresponding reserve into short-term debt and earns interest. The bigger the scale, the bigger the interest pie. $80.84 is probably the institutional cost price for this round, right?