Circle beats earnings as Arc blockchain gains BlackRock, DTCC backing
In brief
- Circle beat adjusted EPS (18¢ vs 16¢) but missed revenue ($701M vs $712M expected)
- USDC circulation reached $73.3B (up 19% YoY); onchain volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion
- Arc blockchain founding validators include BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, MoneyGram
- BlackRock deploying BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund on Arc; DTCC building securities tokenization infrastructure
Earnings: Beat on bottom line, miss on revenue
Circle posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents per share, topping the consensus estimate of 16 cents. Net income from continuing operations reached $48 million, exceeding analyst expectations of $43 million.
The revenue picture proved less rosy. Circle's revenue and reserve income rose 7% year-over-year to $701 million, falling short of Wall Street's $712 million expectation. Still, the earnings beat offset the shortfall and drove premarket gains.
USDC momentum, payments network growth
USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion at the end of June, up 19% from a year earlier. The stablecoin's onchain activity accelerated sharply: onchain transaction volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion during the quarter.
Circle's enterprise payments arm also showed traction. Circle Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume over the trailing 30 days, up 76% from the previous quarter, with 175 financial institutions now participating.
Arc: institutional blockchain launch
Arc, Circle's layer 1 blockchain, is attracting heavyweight backing ahead of its September 16 public mainnet launch. The network's founding validator set includes BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, and MoneyGram, among other financial firms.
Builders are already committed. More than 100 ecosystem and institutional builders are developing on Arc. BlackRock plans to deploy its BUIDL tokenized U.S. Treasury fund on the network, while DTCC is working on infrastructure to tokenize securities held at its depository.
"Our quarterly financial results reflect the current rate environment and a crypto market that has slowed. But the institutions using USDC today, like BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered aren't piloting, they are expanding." — Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle Internet
Regulatory progress
Circle obtained approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust as a stablecoin issuer with a federal trust bank charter, reinforcing its standing as a regulated stablecoin provider.
