There’s been no shortage of disheartening news to stomach in recent weeks. Digital asset values have declined dramatically and many investors have incurred significant losses. Employees have lost jobs, some people have even had job offers rescinded, and companies are warning that robust hiring might not return for a long time – if at all. Some appear on the brink of failure and these headline risks are not contained in digital assets.
It’s unsettling. It’s painful. But corrections and retracements are a natural and healthy occurrence in innovative, fast growth industries. For Circle, this moment is an opportunity to invest and grow. Circle’s growth and navigation plans rest on three key pillars:
- People
- Mission and Values
- Business Resiliency
I want to talk about each of these in detail.
A Clear Mission Driven By Values and the Right People
Everything starts and ends with people. Circle has hired hundreds of employees since the beginning of the year and has plans to continue to hire strategically over the next 18 months. In short, we will grow, crypto winter or not.
It’s because of this team that we’re well positioned to continue to launch products and services and build for the future. In the last month alone, we’ve announced Euro Coin (EURC), our second fiat-backed digital currency, support for Polygon USDC, and what will become a marquee annual event for the entire Web3 industry, Converge22. And we’re expanding. We also recently agreed to acquire CYBAVO, a breakthrough crypto technology company, adding dozens of new colleagues and deepening our core product, infrastructure offerings, and geographic reach.
In short, expect a lot more from us in the years to come.
Underpinning this growth is a clear mission and clear values. You can see these on our website in big bold letters, peppered through internal documents, and hear us repeat them on panels and in customer conversations:
We mean it. Since we were founded in 2013, we’ve spent countless hours engaging with regulators and policymakers, globally, so they understand the benefits and risks of the novel technologies we’re building. This of course includes communicating with key Congressional committees and state and federal regulators.
It’s why we’ve given so much attention to Circle Impact, a permanent initiative aimed at reaching the people and communities who are all too often left behind by the traditional financial system. And soon we’ll have more news about one of the key pillars of Circle Impact, directing dollar-denominated reserves to underrepresented Minority-owned Depository Institutions (MDIs) and Community Banks.
Our values – how we each individually act to achieve our mission – are critical to our success. Every potential candidate will see and hear us talk about how everyone at Circle aspires to four core values:
Multistakeholder - you have dedication and commitment to our customers, shareholders, employees and families and local communities.
Mindful - you seek to be respectful, an active listener and to pay attention to detail.
Driven by Excellence - you are driven by our mission and our passion for customer success which means you relentlessly pursue excellence, that you do not tolerate mediocrity and you work intensely to achieve your goals.
High Integrity - you seek open and honest communication, and you hold yourself to very high moral and ethical standards. You reject manipulation, dishonesty and intolerance.
These values, along with clear business goals, are how we judge our success or failure. They’re essential to helping us weather the ever-changing market.
A Resilient Business Model That's Battle Tested
It has been quite a year for Circle from a business perspective.
We raised a significant amount of money in the last year (see here and here).
We established key relationships. Worldpay from FIS® became the first global merchant acquirer to offer merchants the ability to receive settlement directly in USD Coin (USDC), we partnered with BNY Mellon to be the primary custodian for USDC reserves, and we entered into a strategic partnership with BlackRock to explore capital market applications for USDC – just to name a few.
And USDC itself has grown significantly. It has more than doubled in circulation year over year to $55 billion (as of June 17, according to CoinGecko) and facilitated $4.8 trillion total on-chain transactions since launched in 2018, according to internal data. It has done all this amid deep market volatility and the meltdown of other projects. In fact, in the last month alone, USDC’s circulation has grown by about $3 billion, according to CoinGecko, as other stablecoins have faltered.
All of this is possible because trust and transparency are the hallmarks of our business. USDC is fully reserved with short-dated US Treasuries (~80%) and cash (~20%), denominated in US dollars, and held directly with leading US financial institutions and custodians within the US regulatory perimeter. Short-duration US Treasuries are the safest, most price stable, most liquid assets available in the world - they have the highest credit rating and the deepest trading markets (trading over $650 billion each day).
The USDC reserve, which is reported as part of Circle’s financial statements, has been audited annually by a leading global accounting firm as part of Circle’s annual financial statement audit. In addition to the annual audit, Circle has published, since the launch of USDC in 2018, monthly statements of the size and composition of the USDC reserve, confirming that the reserve is at least as large as the amount of USDC in circulation, which are attested to by our auditor. We’ve continued to work to lead the industry on transparency and continue to increase the level of transparency to earn the public’s trust.
Come Join Us
We know that the next few months, or even years, won’t be easy. But Circle is built to last and will use this time to keep growing, strategically, and building products and services to power global economic prosperity. I said earlier that everything we do starts and ends with people. It does! So if what you just read animates you, please see our open positions and come join us!
