The $819 million that went to distribution partners and transaction costs in the first half is the figure Circle chose to publish as newer issuers argue incumbents keep too much. What is left after reinvestment is 7 cents on the dollar.
Circle published a defense of its own economics on October 16, and the number at the center of it is $819 million. That is what the USDC issuer says went to distribution partners and transaction costs in the first half of 2026, out of roughly $1.4 billion in revenue, or about 59 cents of every dollar it took in. The post, written by chief commercial officer Kash Razzaghi, appeared on Circle's blog and, as The Block describes it, answers newer stablecoin issuers who argue that incumbents keep too much of the revenue and charge too much to redeem.
The rest of the dollar goes two ways in Circle's accounting. About $473 million, roughly 34 cents, was reinvested in licenses, banking relationships, liquidity, compliance, products and blockchain integrations. What remained was 7 cents of net profit per revenue dollar, which Crypto Briefing put at about $98 million for the half. Circle does not split the $819 million between payments to partners and transaction costs, so the share actually reaching distributors is not visible in the post.
The quarterly figures point the same way. Crypto Briefing reports distribution and transaction costs of $412 million in the second quarter against $701 million of revenue and reserve income, a ratio close to the half-year one.
Circle's case is that those payments are the product rather than a leak. Partners that hold and grow USDC balances earn a share of the income the reserves behind those balances generate, and the share rises with the amount of USDC they bring. Coinbase is the largest of them by balances held, and Circle says the average USDC sitting in Coinbase products reached $20 billion in the second quarter, up 44% from a year earlier. Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement in September alongside a $100 million investment in Circle, and the company counts more than 150 other partners with an economic interest in USDC's growth.
The scale figures in the post are Circle's own. It says USDC settled more than $36 trillion onchain in the first half, that more than $315 billion was minted and redeemed over the period at about $1.7 billion a day, and that its share of global stablecoin transaction volume reached about 77% by June, up from 60% a year earlier. The post does not define what the onchain volume total counts. For a comparison from outside the company, The Block cites a Standard Chartered report from earlier in the week that puts the average monthly value of stablecoin transfers at close to $10 trillion this year.
On redemptions, the post says customers building on Circle's platform or moving payments over the Circle Payments Network can redeem for free in near real time, that standard-rail redemptions are free for everyone and usually settle within two business days, and that Circle does not charge for the liquidity that makes the faster option possible. It also says first-quarter redemptions of $71.8 billion were roughly 90% of the supply then in circulation, without giving the circulation figure. These are the company's descriptions of its own terms.
Crypto Briefing's reading of the same numbers is that USDC's growth has been partly purchased, and that a 7-cent margin leaves little cushion on revenue that depends heavily on reserve income. It notes that partner payments scale with balances, while licensing, banking and compliance costs do not obviously fall when revenue does. Circle has agreed to buy Tazapay for $400 million, a deal targeted to close in 2027, and plans to enter roughly 40 to 50 emerging markets, both of which add cost before they add revenue.
The disclosure lands while USDC's regulatory position in Europe shifts. The European Banking Authority will supervise its reserves directly from November 12 after designating USDC the bloc's first significant e-money token. Circle has also been building past issuance, opening its Arc chain with BlackRock, Visa and DTCC among the validators in September, while distribution keeps widening: Samsung Wallet is due to start sending USDC late this month.
What the post does not argue is that 59 cents is temporary. Circle's position is that paying for distribution is what built the network, and it treats the figure as the cost of holding that network together rather than one it expects to come down. Circle reports third-quarter results on November 4.
