Coinbase holds the title of Circle’s largest USDC partner, yet it’s also backing Open USD, a network that distributes reserve earnings to partners after deducting management fees. That move looks pretty conflicted. Circle’s response is to defend USDC’s economic model, while Jeremy Allaire says the company plans to expand into about 40 emerging markets across Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. I checked the data: USDC’s 24-hour trading volume is $1.9 billion, so activity is still there. But what’s really putting pressure on Circle isn’t its issuance volume—it’s competitors using revenue sharing as a poaching tool. A BIS paper added another blow: for every 1-basis-point increase in U.S. bank deposit rates, stablecoin growth over ten weeks falls from 15% to 12%. So my take is that the push into 40 markets isn’t an expansion story; it’s Circle looking for new revenue as its profits get squeezed from both sides. $USDC