USD Coin (USDC) Reseña
Circle's dollar stablecoin: Treasury-fund reserves, monthly Deloitte examinations and MiCA authorisation
Link to the company's own site · doesn't affect score
De un vistazo
USDC is Circle's dollar stablecoin, with $72.7 billion in circulation on 12 October 2026. At 31 August 2026 its $73.40 billion of reserves sat 84.9% in a BlackRock-managed Treasury money fund, 13.1% in bank cash and 1.8% in Treasury bills, examined monthly by Deloitte. It is MiCA-authorised in the EU through France's ACPR. It depegged once, to about 87 cents during the March 2023 SVB failure. Individuals cash out through exchanges, since Circle Mint is not open to individuals or small businesses.
Holding dollars on-chain for weeks or months with the fewest unknowns, moving money between US exchanges and banks, and anyone in the EU who needs a MiCA-compliant dollar token.
You want yield from the issuer (Circle pays none; rewards come from platforms like Coinbase), you need the most-traded dollar token on offshore exchanges (USDT has 2.5 times the supply and about three times the daily trading volume), or you mainly use PayPal, which does not support USDC.
Datos rápidos
- Ticker
- USDC
- Issuer
- Circle Internet Financial, LLC (Circle Internet Group, NYSE: CRCL)
- Peg
- USD
- Backing
- fiat collateralized
- Market cap
- $72.4B
- Chains
- 38
- Attestation
- monthly
- Fiat redeem
- Yes
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Auditors / attestors
- · Deloitte & Touche LLP (monthly reserve examinations)
- · Deloitte & Touche LLP (Circle Internet Group financial statements)
A favor
- Reserves are only Treasuries, Treasury repo and cash: 84.9% in BlackRock's Circle Reserve Fund at 31 August 2026
- Monthly reserve examinations by Deloitte, plus audited accounts filed with the SEC by a NYSE-listed parent
- MiCA-authorised e-money token since July 2024, so EU exchanges kept it when they delisted USDT
- Native on 38 blockchains, with Circle's CCTP moving native USDC between chains
- Coinbase charges no USDC conversion fee until net conversions pass $5 million in a rolling 30 days
En contra
- 13.1% of reserves is cash at banks Circle does not name, the channel that caused the 87-cent depeg in March 2023
- Individuals and small businesses cannot redeem with Circle directly; they depend on exchanges
- Circle can blacklist addresses; 129.9 million USDC was restricted at 31 August 2026
- Holders earn nothing from Circle; US Coinbase rewards now require a paid Coinbase One membership
- Thin reserve cushion: $77.8 million, about 0.11% of circulation, at 31 August 2026
Is USDC safe? The short answer
Is USDC safe? On reserves, it is about as safe as a privately issued stablecoin gets. At 31 August 2026 Circle held $73.40 billion against 73.32 billion USDC in circulation, almost all of it in a BlackRock-managed Treasury money fund and cash at banks, and Deloitte examined those figures. The risks that remain are smaller but real: the bank-cash sleeve, the fact that individuals cannot redeem with Circle directly, and Circle's power to freeze addresses.
The one time USDC broke its peg shows how those risks play out. In March 2023, $3.3 billion of its reserves was stuck at Silicon Valley Bank when the bank failed, and USDC traded at about 87 cents over a weekend. Nothing was lost in the end, because US authorities guaranteed SVB's deposits. A holder who sold that Saturday still took the loss. So "safe" here means the dollars are very likely to be there; it does not mean the price can never wobble.
What is USDC, and who issues it?
USDC is a dollar stablecoin issued by Circle, redeemable 1:1 for US dollars through Circle's business platform. It launched in September 2018 and is the second-largest stablecoin. Circle reported $72.7 billion in circulation on 12 October 2026, and CoinGecko put its market value at about $72.4 billion on 16 October. Tether's USDT is about two and a half times larger.
The parent company is Circle Internet Group, Inc., headquartered at One World Trade Center in New York and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as CRCL.
Being public matters for a stablecoin issuer: Circle files audited annual accounts and quarterly reports with the SEC, and Deloitte has audited its financial statements since 2022. USDC itself is issued by two subsidiaries, Circle Internet Financial, LLC for most of the world and Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS for the European Economic Area, according to the USDC terms updated on 15 October 2026.
Circle's business is the interest on the reserves. In the second quarter of 2026 it earned $668 million of reserve income on a 3.5% reserve return rate, out of $701 million of total revenue and reserve income, according to its Q2 2026 results. Holders get none of it.
What backs USDC? The reserve breakdown
USDC is backed by short-term US Treasuries, Treasury repo and cash, with no gold, bitcoin or loans. The figures below come from Circle's August 2026 reserve report, signed on 29 September 2026.
| Reserve asset (31 August 2026) | US$ billion | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Circle Reserve Fund (USDXX), run by BlackRock | 62.32 | 84.9% |
| of which Treasury repo (overnight) | 49.58 | |
| of which US Treasury securities | 11.92 | |
| of which cash and settlement items, net | 0.82 | |
| Cash at regulated financial institutions | 9.59 | 13.1% |
| US Treasury securities held directly | 1.30 | 1.8% |
| Settlement timing differences, net | 0.19 | 0.3% |
| Total reserves | 73.40 | 100% |
| USDC in circulation | 73.32 |
The Circle Reserve Fund is a registered government money market fund under SEC Rule 2a-7. On 15 October 2026 BlackRock reported $61.27 billion of net assets, a weighted average maturity of 16 days and 100% of assets in daily and weekly liquid holdings.
Its holdings file for that date showed about 60% Treasury repo and 40% Treasury bills. Circle's subsidiary owns the fund's shares on behalf of USDC holders, and the 10-K states that Circle does not lend, borrow against or encumber the reserves. BNY is the primary custodian, Circle says.
Two details are worth knowing.
First, Circle runs with a thin cushion: reserves exceeded circulation by $77.8 million at 31 August, about 0.11%. USDC carries no large equity buffer inside the reserve the way Tether does. It needs less of one, because its assets barely move in price.
Second, Circle does not name the banks that hold the 13.1% cash portion. Its 10-K says the cash sits primarily with banks the Financial Stability Board lists as globally systemically important. That cash is still the part of USDC that a bank failure can hit, as 2023 showed.
Is USDC audited?
The reserves are examined monthly and the company is audited yearly. Each month Deloitte & Touche LLP performs an examination under AICPA attestation standards, a reasonable-assurance engagement, on Circle's statement that reserves at least equal the USDC in circulation on two dates in the month. Like any attestation, it checks balances at a point in time rather than every day.
Separately, Circle Internet Group's annual financial statements are audited because it is a listed company. Its 2025 annual report on Form 10-K, filed on 9 March 2026, covers the reserve fund, the Coinbase revenue-sharing deal and the regulatory risks in detail. For a reader who wants to check claims rather than trust them, that filing is the most useful single document on USDC.
Has USDC ever depegged?
Once, for about three days in March 2023. Silicon Valley Bank was placed into FDIC receivership on Friday 10 March. That night Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of reserves, about 8% of the total, sat at SVB. USDC fell to about 87 cents early on Saturday.
On Sunday evening the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC announced that all SVB depositors would have access to their money from Monday 13 March. USDC returned to a dollar when Circle resumed redemptions that Monday, and by 15 March Circle had redeemed $3.8 billion and minted $0.8 billion, according to a December 2025 Federal Reserve note on the episode. CoinGecko's record low for USDC, $0.8776, still dates from that weekend. Over the six months to mid-October 2026 its price stayed between $0.9991 and $1.0024.
The lesson is specific. The risk was never Treasuries. It was uninsured cash at one bank. Circle has since cut its bank cash from about $11.5 billion, roughly a quarter of reserves, in the week before SVB failed to 13.1% at 31 August 2026, but that 13.1% is still the channel through which a similar shock could reach USDC.
Is USDC FDIC-insured?
No. The GENIUS Act says payment stablecoins shall not be subject to FDIC deposit insurance (section 4(e) of the enacted text), and Coinbase tells customers their USDC balance "is not insured by the FDIC or SIPC". Holding USDC on an exchange does not turn it into a deposit.
If an exchange that holds your USDC fails, you rely on the exchange's custody arrangements, not on deposit insurance. Circle's cash reserves sit in bank accounts held for the benefit of USDC holders, but that does not make your USDC an insured deposit. The GENIUS Act adds a different protection once it is in force: it gives stablecoin holders priority over other creditors if an issuer becomes insolvent, according to the White House fact sheet on the law.
Can Circle freeze your USDC?
Yes. The USDC contract on Ethereum and other EVM chains has a blacklister role that can block any address, and the USDC terms let Circle block addresses it links to illegal activity or terms violations and freeze funds on a valid legal order. At 31 August 2026 the reserve report counted 129.9 million USDC as "access denied", meaning restricted for legal or regulatory reasons.
Circle says it freezes at the direction of authorities. Chief executive Jeremy Allaire told CoinDesk in April 2026 that Circle can freeze a wallet "at the direction of law enforcement or the courts". It has used the power in public cases.
When the US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash on 8 August 2022, Circle froze the sanctioned addresses the same day, at least 75,000 USDC according to The Block. In March 2026 it froze 16 business wallets reportedly tied to a sealed US civil case and unfroze at least one within days. On 30 May 2026, under a federal court order in California, it blacklisted a Zama contract holding 12.6 million USDC, The Block reported; Zama said on 2 June that the court had lifted the freeze, according to Cointelegraph.
Circle has also been criticised for not freezing. After the Drift Protocol exploit on 1 April 2026, about $230 million of stolen USDC moved across chains through Circle's own transfer protocol, and a class action filed in Massachusetts federal court accuses Circle of failing to act. Circle has moved to dismiss; no ruling had been reported by October 2026.
The GENIUS Act will make this standard: permitted issuers must be able to seize, freeze or burn tokens when the law requires. Every permitted US payment stablecoin will have to carry the same power.
How do you turn USDC into dollars?
Through an exchange or app. Individuals and small businesses cannot redeem with Circle. Direct 1:1 redemption happens on Circle Mint, and Circle states that Mint "is not available to individuals or small businesses". Circle says standard-rail redemptions are free for its customers and typically settle within two business days.
For everyone else in the US, one fee-free route is Coinbase. Coinbase Exchange, its institutional platform, converts USD and USDC 1:1 with no fee on manual conversions, and the retail fee page charges a 0.10% processing fee only on net conversions above $5 million in a rolling 30 days, per Coinbase's fee page. Kraken lists USDC on 18 networks, and Robinhood lets US customers trade it everywhere except Texas. PayPal does not support USDC; its own branded stablecoin is PYUSD, issued by Paxos.
Check the network before you withdraw. USDC exists natively on dozens of chains, and an exchange that accepts USDC on Ethereum will not necessarily accept it on Solana or Base.
Does USDC pay interest?
Not from Circle. The issuer keeps the reserve income, and the GENIUS Act bars permitted issuers from paying holders "any form of interest or yield", as Circle's 10-K puts it. What you see as USDC yield comes from someone else.
Coinbase pays USDC rewards as "a loyalty program funded by Coinbase"; in the US it has required a paid Coinbase One membership since December 2025, DL News reported, and the rate is shown only inside each account. Press reports of the rate conflict, so check your own account rather than a headline figure.
Coinbase can afford it because of its deal with Circle. Under their collaboration agreement, Coinbase receives half of the residual USDC reserve income after payments to other partners, plus income tied to USDC held on its own platform. Circle paid $1.4 billion of distribution costs under its Coinbase agreements in 2025, per the 10-K.
Whether exchanges may keep paying rewards like this was the central fight over the CLARITY Act market-structure bill, which failed a Senate cloture vote 49 to 50 in September 2026. No statute stops them today, but the OCC's proposed GENIUS rule would presume that an issuer pays banned yield if a "related third party" pays holders on its behalf. Partner-funded rewards like Coinbase's are legal for now and under regulatory review.
Is USDC regulated in the US, the EU and the UK?
In the EU, yes: USDC is an authorised e-money token. In the US and the UK, Circle holds licences, but the stablecoin-specific regimes start later (January 2027 in the US, October 2027 in the UK).
- United States. The GENIUS Act was signed on 18 July 2025 and is due to take effect on 18 January 2027; from 18 July 2028 US platforms may only offer stablecoins from permitted issuers. The OCC's final rule was still pending on 16 October 2026. Circle has already won final OCC approval for a national trust bank, Circle National Trust, which opened on 24 July 2026 offering custody to Circle and its affiliates, and a New York trust charter from NYDFS announced on 31 July 2026. Circle also holds a New York BitLicense and state money transmitter licences. Circle expects USDC to qualify as a permitted payment stablecoin; until the rules are final, that is its expectation, not a fact.
- European Union. Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS is authorised as an e-money institution by France's ACPR and has issued USDC as a MiCA-compliant e-money token since 1 July 2024. It appears on ESMA's interim MiCA register, which is why EU exchanges kept USDC when they delisted USDT. On 14 October 2026 the European Banking Authority classified USDC as the EU's first significant e-money token; from 12 November 2026 the EBA directly supervises its reserves, liquidity and redemption plans.
- United Kingdom. Circle UK Trading Limited holds an FCA e-money licence. The FCA's stablecoin issuance rules, published on 30 June 2026, apply from 25 October 2027.
- Elsewhere. Circle holds a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore, a Bermuda digital asset business licence and an Abu Dhabi permission, and Japan's SBI VC Trade has offered USDC since March 2025 under Japan's stablecoin rules.
Which blockchains is USDC on?
Circle issues USDC natively on 38 blockchains as of 16 September 2026, according to its USDC page and contract address list. The main ones are Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, OP Mainnet, Stellar, Sui, Aptos and XRPL, plus Circle's own Arc network, which launched its public mainnet on 16 September 2026.
| Chain status | Detail |
|---|---|
| Native (38, including Noble) | Includes Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon PoS, OP Mainnet, Stellar, Sui, Aptos, XRPL, NEAR, Hedera, Algorand, Unichain, World Chain, Arc |
| Winding down | Noble: new minting stopped 13 October 2026; contract paused 12 January 2027 |
| Discontinued | Tron (minting stopped February 2024), Flow (support ended September 2024) |
| Cross-chain transfers | CCTP V2 burns and mints native USDC between chains; the older V1 is retired between 31 October and 1 December 2026 |
If you hold USDC on Noble, move it before 1 December 2026, when cross-chain exits may be limited; Circle's wind-down notice sets out the dates. Note too that Circle stopped minting USDC on Tron in February 2024, and its reserve report lists Tron as redemption-only.
USDC vs USDT: which is safer?
USDC is the safer coin on reserves, reporting and regulation; USDT is larger and more liquid on offshore exchanges.
| USDC (Circle) | USDT (Tether) | |
|---|---|---|
| Market value, 16 Oct 2026 | $72.4B | $183.5B |
| Issuer | NYSE-listed, New York HQ | El Salvador |
| Reserve report | Monthly examination (Deloitte) | Quarterly attestation (BDO); FY2025 audit (KPMG, report not published) |
| Reserves outside cash and Treasuries | None | About 25% (gold, bitcoin, loans, equities, other) |
| MiCA (EU) | Authorised since July 2024 | Not authorised; delisted |
| Who can redeem directly | Circle Mint business accounts (not individuals or small businesses) | Verified customers, $100,000 minimum, no US persons |
| Depeg record | One: about $0.87, March 2023 | Several; deepest about $0.925 (October 2018) |
The choice comes down to use. If you are holding dollars for weeks or months, or you need an EU-compliant coin, USDC is the stronger option. If you trade on exchanges where USDT pairs dominate, or you send dollars on Tron, where about half of all USDT circulates, USDT is what the market uses.
How is USDC taxed in the US?
The IRS treats stablecoins as property, so selling, swapping or spending USDC is a disposal that can produce a small gain or loss.
The IRS digital assets page says brokers report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for sales from 1 January 2025 and basis for certain sales from 1 January 2026, and an optional method lets brokers skip reporting a customer's qualifying stablecoin sales of $10,000 or less in a year, under the IRS Form 1099-DA de minimis rules. Rewards are different: Coinbase says it issues Form 1099-MISC to US users who receive more than $600 in USDC rewards. Our US crypto tax guide covers the rules.
Who should use USDC?
USDC fits people who want a dollar token they can hold for months with the fewest unknowns: US users moving money between exchanges and banks, DeFi users who want a regulated dollar that is widely integrated, and anyone in the EU who needs a MiCA-compliant coin. Its weak points are narrow. It pays nothing directly, individuals depend on an exchange to cash out, and Circle can and does freeze addresses.
If you want yield, compare the platform paying it, not the coin. If you want the largest market, USDT has it. And if you mostly use PayPal or Venmo, PYUSD lives there. Our stablecoin hub compares the coins on the same scorecard, and the guide to what a stablecoin is explains the basics.
Sources
- Circle / Deloitte & Touche LLP, USDC reserve report, August 2026, signed 2026-09-29. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, USDC page and FAQ (circulation as of 2026-10-12). Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, USDC terms, updated 2026-10-15. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- CoinGecko, USDC market data, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- BlackRock, Circle Reserve Fund (USDXX), data as of 2026-10-15. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle Internet Group, Form 10-K for 2025, filed 2026-03-09. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle Internet Group, Q2 2026 results, 2026-08-05. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Federal Reserve Board, FEDS Notes on SVB and stablecoins, 2025-12-17. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Federal Reserve Board, joint statement on SVB, 2023-03-12. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- White House, GENIUS Act fact sheet, 2025-07-18, and the GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- OCC, proposed GENIUS Act rule, FR doc 2026-04089, 2026-03-02. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- European Banking Authority, USDC classified as significant e-money token, 2026-10-14. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, FiatToken Blacklistable contract. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- The Block, Circle freezes Tornado Cash USDC, 2022-08-08; Circle unfreezes USDC, 2026-03-25. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Cointelegraph, class action after Drift hack, 2026-04-17; The Block, court-ordered Zama freeze, 2026-05-30; CoinDesk, Allaire on freezes, 2026-04-13. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Coinbase, fees and USDC rewards FAQ. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- DL News, Coinbase ends USDC rewards for non-paying customers, 2025-12-11. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, final OCC approval, 2026-07-10, and NYDFS trust charter, 2026-07-31. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- ESMA, interim MiCA register. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- UK FCA, cryptoasset regime policy statements, 2026-06-30. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, USDC contract addresses and Noble wind-down notice. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Robinhood, coin availability; Kraken, supported assets; PayPal, supported cryptocurrencies. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- IRS, digital assets. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- IRS, Form 1099-DA de minimis rules. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Federal Reserve note (above) for pre-SVB bank cash of $11.5 billion on 2023-03-06; Coinbase Global, Form 10-Q for Q2 2026 (investment in Circle). Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Cointelegraph, Zama freeze reversed, 2026-06-02; The Block, Drift class action, 2026-04-16; The Defiant, CLARITY Act cloture vote, September 2026. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, licences (updated 2026-09-08) and Japan USDC launch, 2025-03-25. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Circle, CCTP V1 deprecation, 2026-08-27; Tron discontinuation, 2024-02-21; Cointelegraph, Arc mainnet launch, 2026-09-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- DefiLlama, stablecoin supply, 2026-10-16; Tether, BDO reserves report, 30 June 2026, fees and terms; CoinDesk, USDT 2018 low, 2018-10-15. Accessed 2026-10-16.
- Coinbase, Coinbase Exchange USD and USDC conversion; PayPal, What is PayPal USD. Accessed 2026-10-16.