Founder’s Letter
Over the past year, Circle has crossed into a new chapter. Our initial public offering and the passage of landmark stablecoin rules in the U.S. and across major economies have validated our founding vision and cemented USDC and Circle as pillars of the emerging internet-native financial system.
What seemed audacious a decade ago — a world where money could move freely as a software object on the public internet — is now reality. The global regulatory apparatus has converged on the legitimacy of full-reserve digital dollars. Enterprises, governments, and financial institutions are embracing the idea that open protocols for money and value exchange will power the next era of global economic coordination.
This is the beginning of what I see as the economic operating system for the internet. Public blockchains are evolving from experimental compute environments into trusted platforms for tamper-resistant data, verifiable transactions, programmable contracts, and globally distributed governance. They are becoming the substrate on which trillions of dollars in value, and ultimately trillions of transactions, will run.
Today, Circle stands at the center of this shift.
Yes, this is a stablecoin moment, but it signals something bigger. The world’s leading banks, enterprises, fintechs, and developers are executing strategies centered on stablecoins. USDC has become the largest regulated digital dollar in the world, with 108% year-over-year circulation growth1 and Circle Mint support spanning more than 185 countries. Onchain USDC transaction volume grew 680% year-over-year to nearly $10 trillion in the third quarter of 20252 alone, demonstrating the raw velocity and reach of the always-on internet economy.
Issuing a stablecoin is a privilege; redemption is a right, one we have executed with unwavering discipline. Nearly $217 billion in USDC was redeemed during the past year,3 reflecting the deep trust and tight connectivity we maintain with the global banking system.
Circle’s evolution reflects this shift. What began with stablecoins is growing into a full-stack internet financial platform company: trusted, open, and purpose-built for a world where economic coordination is moving online.
A new architecture is forming. The financial system is shifting away from siloed intermediaries toward shared, software-based coordination. This coming transformation mirrors earlier epochal shifts, from the rise of the web to the emergence of cloud, mobile, social platforms, and now AI. But its impact on global economic activity may be even more profound.
To meet this moment, Circle is building three indispensable layers of the economic OS: Arc, Digital Assets, and Apps.
Arc represents the foundation. Far more than another blockchain, it is engineered as the Economic Operating System for the internet. It brings together tamper-resistant data, high-performance smart contract execution, global compliance readiness, and neutral governance. Arc is designed to support the full spectrum of internet-native finance: tokenized assets, capital markets, machine-intermediated contracts, autonomous organizations, and the economic activity of both humans and AI agents. Over time, it could catalyze a platform shift on par with the earliest eras of the internet, shaping how economic actors coordinate for decades to come.
The second layer is Digital Assets. USDC, EURC, and USYC have already achieved global scale. They are becoming the base-layer money for the new internet economy, enabling real assets — currencies, Treasuries, deposits, and beyond — to flow seamlessly across networks.
The third layer is Applications. This is where the utility of the network meets the needs of the real world. Circle Payments Network (CPN) is an application layer designed for a world where programmable, compliant, and auditable payments operate at internet speed. CPN is the first of several applications we will build to support existing and ultimately new forms of onchain economic actors.
Together, these three layers fortify Circle’s mission: to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. We now have the infrastructure, regulatory clarity, global reach, and partnerships to begin delivering this mission at true internet scale.
My life’s work has been dedicated to the belief that open platforms and network protocols unlock human and economic potential. What is emerging now is much more than a new technology layer; it is the early architecture of a new global economic system.
The internet financial system is rising. And while Circle plays a critical role in its formation, no single company can build it alone. We are honored to collaborate with the world’s leading institutions, developers, and innovators to help shape a more prosperous, more connected global economy.
This report marks another step in that journey. We are just getting started.
Sincerely,
1. Company data as of September 30, 2025.
2. Company data as of September 30, 2025 compared to September 30, 2024.
3. Past year ending December 11, 2025. See https://www.circle.com/transparency.