Circle’s third-quarter report disclosed holding about $133 million in digital assets
As of September 30, 2026, the fair value of digital assets held by Circle Internet Group totaled about $133.355 million. These mainly included about 379.9 million Canton Coin (fair value of about $47.99 million), about 504,200 HYPE (about $45.88 million), 77 BTC (about $6.39 million, including about $3.3 million of cirBTC), about 4.1 million SUI (about $4.77 million), and 1,728 ETH (about $4.64 million), with the remaining digital assets totaling about $23.7 million.
The amount of HYPE held rose more than fivefold from about 81,400 as of December 31, 2025. The above holdings breakdown did not appear in Circle’s earlier third-quarter earnings press release, but was disclosed in the notes to the subsequently filed Form 10-Q quarterly report.
The quarterly report also showed that Circle entered into token purchase agreements with institutional investors in the second quarter, under which it sold a total of 807.5 million ARC at a price of $0.30 per token, raising total proceeds of about $242.2 million (higher than the initial scale of $222 million reported by some media in May of this year). About $181.8 million of that was recognized as revenue in the third quarter, and the remainder was recorded as deferred revenue. An entity affiliated with IDG Capital, which holds more than 5% of Circle’s shares, bought 83.3 million ARC on May 8 at the same price for $25 million (included in the total above). In addition, Binance paid Circle $100 million for an equity investment in USDC, and Circle issued about 1.237 million Class A common shares in a private placement in connection with this.
Original source:
Title: Circle Internet Group, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2026 Publisher: Circle Internet Group, Inc. Publication date: 2026-11-04 URL: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1876042/000187604226000311/crcl-20260930.htm Source nature: official filing Verification: the relevant notes were actually reviewed this time (digital asset detail schedule, ARC token sales and private placement supplemental disclosure), verification date 2026-11-04, full text publicly accessible Supporting content: supports all numerical digital asset holdings, fair values, ARC sale size and revenue recognition, purchases by an IDG-affiliated entity, and details of Binance’s USDC-funded private placement; does not prove that the holdings were sold or that the ARC network has completed specific milestones
ABAB AI Insight
Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville founded Circle in 2013, initially positioning it as a consumer digital currency service before shifting to regulated stablecoins. Allaire previously founded Allaire Corporation (developer of ColdFusion) and Brightcove; Circle completed its IPO in 2025. The digital asset holdings shown in this Form 10-Q are concentrated in on-chain assets related to Circle’s ecosystem rather than traditional reserve assets.
The ARC token sale constitutes a non-reserve source of revenue: the second-quarter agreement sold 807.5 million tokens at a price of $0.30 each (fully diluted valuation of about $3 billion), and $181.8 million of revenue was recognized in the third quarter. Binance paid $100 million in USDC to receive about 1.237 million Class A shares, while also renewing a five-year USDC promotion agreement (Circle pays Binance monthly incentive fees based on wallet balances). An entity affiliated with IDG Capital, as a shareholder owning more than 5%, participated in the ARC purchase, reflecting existing shareholders’ continued participation in platform expansion.
Compared with Tether, which mainly relies on reserve income, and Coinbase, which is mainly driven by exchange fees and custody, Circle is expanding its revenue sources from USDC reserve interest to its own L1 token sales and ecosystem holdings. HYPE holdings increased from about 81,000 to 504,000 tokens, corresponding to growth in USDC usage on Hyperliquid; the Canton Coin holdings point to an institutional RWA-related network. These holdings make Circle both the issuer of USDC and a direct token holder in partner chains.
This structure changes Circle’s revenue elasticity and channel alignment: ARC revenue provides a hedge against interest-rate-sensitive reserve income, while holding HYPE, Canton Coin and similar assets can capture fair value changes as partner networks grow; Binance simultaneously serves as a paid distribution channel and a shareholder, reducing one-sided dependence under pure payment incentives. Metrics to watch are subsequent quarterly changes in the fair value of digital assets, the pace of ARC deferred revenue recognition, and changes in USDC balances on platforms such as Hyperliquid.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
When stablecoin issuers hold native tokens of partner chains, they turn distribution relationships into price exposure on the balance sheet.
Equity investments paid for with their own stablecoin make the largest distribution channel at once a shareholder and an incentivized party.