USDC Revenue Split: $819M To Partners And Costs In H1, Circle Says

Circle has put a number on where USDC money goes. A company blog post published on October 16 says about $819 million of first-half revenue went to distribution partners and transaction costs. The USDC revenue split is the company's answer to newer stablecoin issuers that say they would share more with partners.

The revenue paragraphs in Circle's post. Source: Circle blog.

The USDC revenue split in Circle's own words

Circle says it made about $1.4 billion in the first half of 2026. Roughly 59 cents of every revenue dollar went to partners and transaction costs, which is the $819 million. Another $473 million, or about 34 cents, went into licenses, banking relationships, settlement liquidity, compliance and blockchain integrations.

That leaves about 7 cents of net profit per dollar. The post says the reinvestment is not overhead. It argues that a stablecoin which hands out everything would have nothing left to fund redemption, compliance and resilience.

The post does not name the entrants it is answering. It describes their pitch as issuers keeping too much and redemptions costing too much.

What the 10-Q shows

Circle's quarterly report for the period ended June 30 is a public filing, so the headline figures can be checked. Total revenue and reserve income for six months was $1,395.4 million. Distribution, transaction and other costs came to $819.3 million, which is 58.7% of revenue.

The six-month income statement in Circle's 10-Q, filed in August. Source: SEC EDGAR.

Reserve income was $1,320.2 million of the total, so interest on reserves is about 95% of what Circle earns. Net income from continuing operations was $103.5 million. That is 7.4% of revenue, which fits the "7 cents" in the blog.

One number does not line up directly with the USDC revenue split in the post. Operating expenses in the 10-Q come to $496.8 million, yet the blog talks about roughly $473 million of spending. Circle's post gives no bridge between the two, so they stay separate figures here.

USDC revenue shares, first half against first half

The same cost line was $754.6 million in the first half of 2025, against revenue of $1,236.7 million. That was 61.0% of revenue, so the share going to partners and transaction costs eased by about 2.3 points in a year. Revenue itself grew about 12.8%.

Circle also gave usage figures that sit beside the USDC revenue split. USDC settled more than $36 trillion onchain in the first half. It carried about 77% of global stablecoin transaction volume in June, up from 60% a year earlier. It minted and redeemed more than $315 billion, roughly $1.7 billion a day.

Partners named in the post

Circle calls Coinbase its largest and longest-standing partner. It cites Coinbase's second-quarter report, which shows average USDC held in its products at an all-time high of $20 billion, up 44% year over year. It also says Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement in September and invested $100 million in Circle.

More than 150 other partners have an economic interest in USDC's growth, according to the post. On redemption, Circle says all customers can redeem for free through standard rails with settlement in up to two business days. Customers using its payments network or platform can redeem free in near real time.

This article compares the blog's figures with the 10-Q and does not judge whether the revenue split is fair to partners or rivals.