On October 16, Circle announced that in the first half of 2026, USDC on-chain settlement volume exceeded $36 trillion. During the same period, Circle minted and redeemed more than $315 billion worth of USDC, averaging approximately $1.7 billion per day. The company said that as of June, USDC accounted for approximately 77% of global stablecoin trading volume, up from 60% a year earlier.

The market is paying closer attention to how USDC revenue is distributed. Circle disclosed that it generated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of the year, of which approximately $819 million—about 59%—went to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs. A further approximately $473 million, or about 34%, was allocated to licensing, banking partnerships, settlement liquidity, compliance systems, product development, and multichain deployment. According to the figures in the announcement, Circle ultimately retains only about 7 cents in net profit for every dollar of revenue.

The announcement may be responding to market concerns that stablecoin issuers have exclusive control over reserve income. Circle said partners can share in the corresponding reserve income by holding and growing their USDC balances on their own platforms. More than 150 trading platforms, wallets, banks, fintech companies, payment platforms, and businesses are now economically aligned with USDC’s growth. Circle also noted that Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement with it in September and invested $100 million in Circle.

At the product level, Circle announced an expansion of its free redemption program: all Circle customers can still redeem USDC for free through traditional banking channels, with funds typically arriving within two business days. Eligible customers making payments through the Circle Payments Network or using products such as Arc, Circle Mint, and Circle Wallets will be able to redeem for free in near real time.