Circle Internet Group, Inc.

Founding (2013–2017)

Circle was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, with Allaire and Neville as co-CEOs. Circle was formed as a consumer finance company aiming to use the bitcoin blockchain as a payments platform. In March 2014 the company debuted its first product, the mobile payment platform Circle Pay. The bitcoin wallet service facilitated first bitcoin transactions and later ether transactions, and allowed users to send payments in a message accompanied by emojis or GIFs. In September 2015, Circle Pay began allowing users to hold, send, and receive fiat currencies as well as cryptocurrency.

In 2015, Circle began working with the UK bank Barclays in what was the first banking relationship between a large global bank and a bitcoin company. In 2016, Circle listed Dublin as its headquarters and was run primarily out of Boston. Products included Circle Invest, Circle Pay, and Circle Trade, among others, in December 2016 the Circle app stopped supporting the exchange of bitcoin, but still allowed money transfers. The company announced a partnership with Coinbase in late 2016. In October 2017, Circle launched a new service for group payments and cash transfers to US accounts.

Forming Centre and USDC (2018)

Circle raised US$110 million in venture capital in May 2018 to develop a new Ethereum stablecoin backed by USD. In September 2018, Circle introduced the consortium Centre, which launched the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency USDC. With members including Coinbase Global and Bitmain, Centre functioned as a platform through which users could deposit funds from traditional bank accounts, convert fiat currency into tokens, and redeem tokens for banknotes. Coinbase and Circle dissolved the Centre Consortium five years later, in August 2023, leaving Circle as the sole governor of USDC.

USDC expansion (2019–2023)

Circle Pay mobile and web apps were discontinued on September 30, 2019. Sean Neville resigned as co-CEO in late 2019, remaining on the board. Jeremy Allaire became sole CEO. In July 2021, Circle announced a plan to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company called Concord Acquisition Corp in a $4.5 billion deal. In December 2022 the deal was terminated. Circle partnered with Robinhood in August 2022. In December 2022, Circle partnered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to distribute USDC to Ukrainian refugees, who could then exchange the stablecoins for local currencies.

Up until late 2022, USDC reserves were largely held at the Bank of New York Mellon. In late 2022, BlackRock began managing the USDC reserves, moving roughly 80% of the total into the Circle Reserve Fund, a money market fund with a mix of cash and short-term government debt ( T-bills ). On March 10, 2023, USDC announced that $3.3 billion of its $40 billion USDC reserves were held at Silicon Valley Bank when SVB collapsed. Within the month, Circle moved the reserves to The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation instead.

Circle selected Paris as its European headquarters in March 2023, at which point, Circle had licenses in 49 US states as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. In July 2023, Circle announced layoffs and stated that it had discontinued investments in non-core business areas. In September 2023, the company released a protocol enabling users to move USDC between blockchains. It also unveiled a programmable Web3 wallet platform. That month, Visa expanded a pilot program using USDC on the Solana blockchain to help pay some merchants in cryptocurrency. Later that year, Coinbase took an equity stake in Circle, and Circle announced that USDC would be available on six additional blockchains. With a $1 billion cash cushion, in 2023, Circle reported $1.45 billion in revenue, up from $772 million in 2022. It was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023 by TIME.

Recent developments (2024–2026)

Circle Internet confidentially filed plans for a U.S. initial public offering in January 2024. The following month, Circle stopped supporting USDC token on the Tron network. According to data compiled by Visa, USDC overtook Tether in stablecoin transaction volume in April 2024. Circle partnered with Binance in December 2024, retaining its ties with Coinbase as well. Circle's net income in 2024 was $156 million, and Circle reported $1.68 billion in revenue and reserve income.

In April 2025, a bid by Ripple Labs to acquire Circle Internet Financial for $4 to $5 billion was rejected as being too low. USDC had a market capitalization of $60 billion in May 2025, remaining the second biggest stablecoin after Tether.

On May 27, 2025, Circle launched its IPO on the NYSE, seeking $624 million for a valuation of up to $6.7 billion. It listed on the NYSE on June 4, 2025. By its second day as a public company, stock had gained 247%, with market value rising to about $28.6 billion. On June 20, after the US senate passed the GENIUS Act clarifying potential stablecoin regulation, Circle's stock "rallied", at which point it was 675% higher than its IPO debut.

In July 2026, Circle received a final regulatory approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to form a ‌national trust bank; USDC's shares consequently jumped 10% in premarket trading.

In September 2026, it was announced that CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen will depart from his role in December after five years in that respective position.