Author | @lufeieth
August 19, 2026, Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle, held a Q2 2026 Earnings AMA for investors. In nearly 47 minutes of dialogue, he answered 11 questions covering Circle's organizational execution capabilities, real-world applications of stablecoins, USDC's global payment opportunities, Circle's long-term business model, the five-year vision for Arc, the trust foundation for the AI agent economy, CPN, EURC, and the impact of the CLARITY Act on USDC growth.
Opening Remarks
Wherever you are, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to this Circle earnings AMA. I'm very excited for this opportunity to take this time to answer your questions and engage with everyone who follows Circle, including our strategy and the things we are focused on executing.
We just released our Q2 earnings, we've shared a lot already. Now we hope to open the discussion further, giving a broader circle of Circle followers a chance to ask questions. You can continue to submit questions during the AMA, and we will try to pick more to answer.
Question 1: As Circle continues to expand across payments, Arc, capital markets, and financial infrastructure, what gives you the most confidence in the team's execution ability? What capabilities does the team most need to strengthen right now?
Questioner: Lufei
Jeremy Allaire:
This is a very good question. As CEO, I often think about how the team is executing now and where we need to continue evolving as the company grows. First, I think Circle is executing very well overall. After the IPO, the speed of our product advancement has been very fast, and the pace of bringing new products and capabilities to market has been quite impressive.
This capability is built upon a very strong cross-functional collaboration system that Circle has developed over many years. We need to launch financial infrastructure, regulated financial products, and platform infrastructure products simultaneously, which requires long-term, high-level coordination across different teams. Additionally, while Circle has been expanding the team, our headcount growth has generally been slow and steady. We haven't adopted an explosive expansion model of massively increasing employees. We have been consciously controlling the growth rate, hoping to build sufficient institutional depth within the company. Many leaders in each of our core business units and key positions have worked with us for a long time, so Circle has strong institutional cohesion internally.
Another very important point. Like many companies, we have begun to deeply use AI and agentic infrastructure. This started earliest with the software engineering team and is now expanding to the entire organization. I often tell Circle employees that this is perhaps the most important opportunity you may encounter in your career because AI is like adding a new ability amplifier to everyone, almost a new kind of "superpower."
Those who can truly leverage this capability need stronger cross-disciplinary and cross-functional abilities. The most effective people in the future will be those who can simultaneously coordinate humans and AI agents and work across different domains. We are already seeing this further increasing the speed at which Circle brings new products to market.
From my personal experience, I have been working on internet software platform development for about 30 years. Many of Circle's product and engineering leaders also come from leading global technology companies. Therefore, we always see Circle as a technology company. The problems we are solving fundamentally rely heavily on technological innovation. Circle's pace of technological innovation is accelerating, which is very crucial.
As for capabilities that need strengthening, there will always be areas. As Circle increasingly resembles the financial market infrastructure relied upon by leading global enterprises and financial institutions, we need to build some new capabilities. One very important area is Cyber Risk. This risk is changing rapidly, particularly in the Crypto industry, but also affecting the entire technology and financial industries. Therefore, strengthening security capabilities is very important.
Another area is global operations. Circle first established its core markets, then gradually entered major financial centers, building local infrastructure, liquidity, and operational capabilities there. Now, we see enormous growth opportunities in dozens of emerging markets and other countries around the world. Therefore, we are building stronger localization capabilities, including personnel, operations, and infrastructure, to deeply penetrate these markets. The demand for Arc, CPN, USDC, stablecoins, and other Circle digital asset products in these regions is very strong. These are the areas we are currently focusing on strengthening.
Question 2: What real-world financial problem do you think stablecoins are currently closest to solving at scale?
Questioner: viralfacts3122
Jeremy Allaire:
We think about this question very frequently. I often say stablecoins are a universal digital currency architecture. If you look at the uses of stablecoins today, you see a very broad spectrum.
At the most micro end, an AI agent can pay a fraction of a cent to another AI agent for cognitive labor like inference, data processing, etc. The traditional financial system could never support such transactions in the past. At the other end of the spectrum, large capital market institutions are using stablecoins and USDC as working capital and collateral, and within financial infrastructure for traditional derivative markets. Large multinational corporations are also starting to use Circle products and stablecoins for global treasury management, inter-company fund transfers, etc.
Returning to the core of the question, which scenarios have already achieved real, large-scale Product Market Fit? We clearly see several.
First, digital asset markets. Stablecoins provide a 24/7, globally available, reliable digital dollar. When the market itself operates 24/7, year-round, globally, this currency is a perfect fit. The earliest natural product-market fit was the digital asset market. Stablecoins serve as working capital, collateral, cash, trade settlement, and payment here, where there is already very strong product-market fit.
And the digital asset market itself is changing. In the future, this market will handle a broader range of assets; the trading universe will no longer be limited to Bitcoin or traditionally defined Crypto Assets, but will include all types of assets and Real World Assets. We are seeing a trend: 24/7 markets, digital asset tokenization, and the ability to have globally software-driven markets are gradually entering traditional capital markets.
Stock trading, commodity trading have real economic functions, including price discovery and capital allocation. So, the convergence of TradFi and Onchain is beginning, though still in early stages.
The second application that has reached scale is digital dollar storage of value in emerging markets. In many parts of the world, demand for digital dollars like USDC is growing. For SMEs, households, and even some large enterprises, stablecoins are starting to become a tool close to a "$1 bank account substitute." They use stablecoins to replace some local banking functions.
This can support commercial activity, savings, investment, and cross-border payments. Looking at the hundreds of millions of people globally who are already using stablecoins, this is a problem that is truly starting to be solved at scale. Of course, this market can be much larger in the future.
The third clear scenario is cross-border settlement and international payments. Stablecoins can become the settlement leg in cross-border transactions. And increasingly, the stablecoin itself is also the final money received. That is, USDC can be used for payment, receipt, value storage, and cross-border fund movement simultaneously. We are seeing this happen within CPN.
Many cross-border payment companies, fintech companies, and banks are partnering with Circle to integrate USDC into their cross-border settlement capabilities. Large payment networks like Visa and Mastercard are also adopting stablecoins for cross-border settlement. An issuing institution in one market can settle funds in another market very quickly.
Next, I believe the Agentic Economy will become a very large area. Stablecoins, Programmable Money, and machine-mediated financial infrastructure are naturally suited for the world of AI agents. Additionally, the penetration of stablecoins into traditional financial markets and the continued convergence of TradFi and Onchain will also occur.
Ultimately, we believe stablecoins will enter the retail merchant payment scenario. It can significantly improve merchant unit economics while creating new value for consumers, such as membership benefits and Rewards mechanisms. I think this scenario will gradually emerge in the coming years. In the long run, we believe this form of money is very suitable for merchant acceptance. Currently, this market still has some distance to go before reaching true large-scale application.
Question 3: Where do you see the biggest opportunity for USDC in the global payments space?
Questioner: fascinatingwatch594
Jeremy Allaire:
It mainly includes several areas. First, cross-border settlement. Second, capital market payments and settlement. Third, Agentic Payments.
AI agents inherently exist in the cloud and the internet, and agents have a strong determinism when executing tasks. We've already observed that over 99% of agent payments on protocols like x402 use USDC. What AI agents need is reliable money, a widely accepted unit of account, fast settlement, extremely low cost, and deterministic execution. USDC is very suitable for agents in these aspects.
Another significant opportunity is retail payments. A model growing very fast right now is the "stablecoin card." Many new neo-banking products are built on stablecoins. Users have a digital wallet with stablecoins, can send and receive stablecoins, put stablecoins into DeFi, invest in digital assets and Real World Assets (RWA), and simultaneously use the stablecoin balance for merchant spending via traditional card networks. Circle collaborates with almost all major companies in this space, and we see very strong growth here.
Going further, I think Point of Sale payment will also change. In many markets in Asia and Latin America, QR codes have become an important POS payment method. Therefore, the leap from "holding stablecoins in a mobile wallet" to "using a QR code to directly settle stablecoins instantly with a merchant" is not far off.
Accomplishing this doesn't necessarily require traditional card terminals. It's already proven globally that the entire payment acceptance system can be upgraded using just QR codes. The unit economics from instant settlement and extremely low fees are crucial.
As stablecoins gradually become legitimate electronic money in major markets, especially after the US GENIUS Act takes effect, I believe the entire merchant acceptance chain will significantly accelerate its upgrade. More and more merchant payment infrastructure companies will begin supporting stablecoin payments. This process will take some time to reach scale, but the direction is very clear.
Question 4: Jeremy, in the long term, do you think Circle's main economic engine will be reserve income from USDC, or the transaction and infrastructure revenue built around USDC?
Questioner: noahplumb5409
Jeremy Allaire:
This is a very important question. I often say to investors, board members, and employees that we are still in a very early stage of this market opportunity's development.
The total onchain stablecoin volume today is only about $300 billion. The Onchain Infrastructure that powers this new financial economic system, although developed for over a decade, is only now maturing to a point where institutions can truly adopt it. The technology is reaching a level acceptable to regulators and policymakers, making it possible to migrate global economic activity onto this infrastructure.
If you look at the Total Addressable Market (TAM), including electronic money itself and the various functions built on top of money—like capital markets, payments, fund transfers, and financial infrastructure—you realize where we are today is very small.
I like to use the internet as an analogy. I think today's onchain finance and stablecoins are roughly at the internet's 2002 stage. The internet had gone through its first wave, there were some great products, many failures, a lot of capital had entered. But the whole industry was still very nascent.
2002 was even around the time of the dot-com bear market. Yet, from that point on, the internet began scaling continuously, maturing, and eventually permeating the whole of society. The web, internet software, digital media, and communication ultimately became ubiquitous. I think the Internet Financial System, stablecoins, and onchain infrastructure are at roughly that stage today.
This implies a few things. First, stablecoin volume will grow from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars. Our view is that stablecoins are a superior, safer form of money and will therefore circulate very widely in the long run.
To scale stablecoins from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars, Circle must partner with distribution channels and platforms worldwide and incentivize their participation. We need to collaborate with world-class financial companies, tech companies, and FinTechs, have them embed Circle infrastructure, adopt it, allowing these partners to earn revenue and reward their users. This is how we scale USDC from today's size to tomorrow's.
Therefore, Reserve Income will remain a very powerful economic engine for Circle. At the same time, these earnings will be more distributed throughout the ecosystem. The ecosystem grows, all participants grow together. Circle must continuously manage this relationship of benefit distribution.
Our goal is not to extract as much profit as possible from today's existing business. Our goal is to build the entire ecosystem to trillions of dollars in scale, having USDC widely integrated into the global financial and economic system.
At the same time, we are also very intentionally building many other products, platforms, and services. These include blockchain infrastructure transaction revenue and various new partnership models.
CPN is a very unique example. CPN is an Onchain Payment Network. This network has only been truly operational for about a year, but it's already showing very strong growth. We believe it can charge per transaction in the future, while also embedding other value-added services within the network for more monetization.
Then there's Arc. We see Arc as a new Economic Operating System. It creates a completely new business model. In terms of opportunity size, we even see it as an Amazon Web Services-level opportunity.
You can think of Arc as an Economic Cloud. We believe it will be used for a very wide range of applications in the future. As AI accelerates, the number of applications will increase further, so Arc will create very important new revenue streams for Circle.
So Circle will continue to earn from reserve income in the future, while simultaneously expanding USDC's scale and network effects. On this foundation, we will extend upwards into the application layer and downwards into the infrastructure layer, while diversifying revenue through more digital assets, protocols, and platforms.
Question 5: What are your expectations or vision for the development of USDC and Arc over the next 5 years?
Questioner: 0xbankas
Jeremy Allaire:
First, about Arc. Circle has been thinking about the problem of "internet economic activity infrastructure" for about 13 years.
When we founded Circle in 2013, a foundational idea was that blockchains would ultimately become Distributed Computing Networks. People could deploy code, i.e., Smart Contracts, into these networks, allowing software to directly participate in and coordinate economic activity. At the same time, any type of record and any type of asset could be issued onto these computing networks.
In 2013, this idea sounded very far-fetched. Over the past decade-plus, we've seen many iterations in this direction. Now, we are entering a very special point in time.
Legal systems are beginning to prepare for this technology. The technology is roughly in its fourth-generation capability stage. Governments worldwide and leading financial institutions and tech companies are beginning to realize this economic infrastructure will become a very important part of the future.
Many used to think blockchains were mainly for trading speculative crypto assets or, at most, for payments. Our view goes further: blockchains are becoming an Operating System. It's a distributed network operating system specifically for running applications with economic properties.
What's involved here is far more than "storing and sending money." It will ultimately host the economy itself.
Think about what a corporation is. A company is essentially a set of contractual relationships. It includes ownership structure, contracts around ownership, mechanisms for investment to enter the company, mechanisms for paying cash flows and dividends to investors, the company's treasury management, and various contracts needed for the company to operate globally.
In the future, the entire mechanism of corporate operation will migrate to the Onchain World. We will have Onchain Corporations. These onchain companies will increasingly be coordinated by software, which itself will increasingly be created and executed by AI.
I have a broader hypothesis: Operating Systems for Intelligence and Operating Systems for Economic Activity will gradually merge. I think the next five years will see this trend truly unfold.
The form of enterprises will become increasingly Onchain and Agentic. Interactions between companies, trading, contracting, and entire corporate back-office systems will gradually migrate to this environment.
Circle hopes to co-build Arc with a wide range of participants globally, including running the infrastructure, upgrading it, governing it, and having those participants gain economic benefits from the infrastructure itself.
If more and more global economic activity enters these operating systems, then the role of onchain money like USDC will naturally expand. If global financial market activity and broader economic activity are mediated by these systems and Onchain Organizations, then USDC, EURC, and other digital currencies will see very significant growth.
Question 6: If AI agents can autonomously discover services and pay for them using USDC, what will become the most fundamental trust primitive before funds are transferred?
Questioner: pawansatoshix
Jeremy Allaire:
This is an issue we've invested a lot of thought in. In fact, we just published a paper last week titled "The Open Economy for Agents." It discusses what is needed for an agent economy system to truly be established. We also explained the foundational capabilities already provided by the Circle Agent Stack and the features planned for development for the rest of this year.
Several issues need to be solved here. First, Know Your Agent. Just as Circle needs to know its customers, we need to be able to verify the identity of end-users, businesses, etc. Regulated financial institutions already must do this work, so Circle has developed very strong capabilities in this area.
In the future, agent developers will also need KYA (Know Your Agent). When an agent interacts with other agents, or when businesses and users interact with that agent, we need to use Cryptography to provide verifiable proofs—through Assertions, Attestations, and Verifiable Identity—to prove who the agent is and what permissions and capabilities it has.
We hope these capabilities integrate with existing standards for Agent Identity, Agent Registry, etc. The internet previously established mechanisms like Certificate Authorities to prove if a network endpoint is trustworthy. The agent world similarly needs such an Assurance Layer.
The second issue is Reputation systems. Reputation is complex because ratings on internet platforms are easily manipulated. We've seen this problem with various listings and Open Marketplaces. So, how to verify the capabilities and reputation of an AI agent is a huge problem.
We are researching corresponding mechanisms. Ideally, a continuous feedback loop is needed: an agent is used, transactions and settlements occur, users and other agents interact with it, data is generated from these real behaviors, ultimately forming a more trustworthy reputation system.
Third is Programmable Policies. We are already starting to offer products in this area. The Circle Agent Wallet can already configure Spending Policies. Users can programmatically control how much an agent can spend, who it can transact with, etc. Circle will continue to enhance these features.
These are all very critical components of the entire agent economy trust system. Circle is also participating in industry standards development, including with the x402 Foundation, etc.
Question 7: Circle is clearly a long-term mission for you. To stay healthy and maintain the energy and mental clarity needed to complete this mission, what do you personally do on a regular basis?
Questioner: Lufei
Jeremy Allaire:
I really like this question. I can share some personal details.
About ten years ago, I gradually realized that if I were to complete a complex, long-term mission like Circle and consistently bring my best self to work, I had to change some lifestyle habits from my younger days. So, I've become very disciplined in several areas.
First, what goes into my body. I am very mindful of diet and physical health, very strictly controlling what I consume.
Second is sleep. I have a very strict and consistent sleep routine. I believe getting enough time and high-quality sleep is very important, so I do many things to ensure sleep quality.
Third is Mindfulness. Mindfulness is actually one of Circle's core values. It represents many things, not limited to meditation. It includes how we face the world, also Active Listening, and whether we can truly maintain a state of focus and Presence when interacting with others.
I feel this practice has some Buddhist thinking. It helps people avoid falling into Catastrophic Thinking, i.e., constantly imagining the worst outcomes when facing problems. When facing challenges, I try to remain calm, accept what happens, solve problems step by step, and move forward day by day. This is very important to me.
Then there's overall physical health. I maintain a fairly active exercise habit and do different types of exercise. These habits are very important. They help me maintain good energy and Mental Acuity. At the same time, I feel I can connect more effectively with other people, including my family and children. This balance is key.
Long-term, complex missions constantly generate new challenges. It won't be simple, nor smooth sailing. Therefore, very strong discipline is needed to persistently face these things. This is roughly my approach to life and the Circle mission.
Question 8: Does Circle have formal partnership, referral, ecosystem, or business development programs that allow other companies to participate and help scale CPN?
Questioner: Cindy Wang @nomadcindyy
Jeremy Allaire:
The answer is: Absolutely. The CPN page on Circle's website has an entry to apply to become a CPN Partner.
In the latest earnings report, we mentioned that over 175 financial institutions have now joined CPN and are connected to the network in different ways. Depending on a company's business type, they can choose different ways to connect to CPN.
At the same time, we are also increasing CPN's Extensibility. That is, in the future, third parties will be able to integrate various value-added services into CPN. For example, Trade Finance. We already have some cases involving providing Credit Facilities for cross-border settlement.
Circle has a dedicated Business Development Team, entirely focused on payments and CPN. This team is global, with personnel in regions worldwide.
Additionally, we have the Circle Alliance Program. This is Circle's broader global partner program. It already includes thousands of companies. Participating companies get various benefits and more opportunities to connect and collaborate with Circle.
Question 9: What measures has Circle taken to enable EURC to reach a circulating supply of 4 billion in such a short time? And what measures can maintain this growth momentum in the future?
Questioner: somtouwazie504
Note: The questioner originally wrote $4 billion, Jeremy explicitly corrected it to €4 billion in his answer.
Jeremy Allaire:
We are very pleased with EURC's early development. EURC's circulating supply has surpassed €4 billion. That's €4 billion, not $4 billion. EURC is now one of the largest digital euros globally.
Of course, compared to the trillions of dollars in USD stablecoins, the entire euro stablecoin market is still small. The total market cap of all euro stablecoins is roughly close to €10 billion.
EURC's success stems from several factors. First, we entered early. From day one, Circle was very committed to launching a euro stablecoin under the European regulatory framework. We collaborated with European regulators and financial institutions and built related infrastructure in advance. So when MiCA took effect, EURC was ready to enter the market directly.
Second, we leveraged Circle's existing partner and distribution network. USDC already had very broad Distribution Relationships in the ecosystem, and EURC could expand directly on this foundation. Many leading European exchanges support EURC, and users can Mint and Redeem at 1:1 through various platforms.
We simultaneously partnered with leading DeFi Protocols to establish EURC markets, lending markets, Swaps, and FX Tools for USDC/EURC exchange.
The future is still very early. USD stablecoins are early, but digital euros and euro stablecoins are even earlier. I often use a phrase: Onchain Money is superior to current traditional electronic money and Legacy Money systems.
Therefore, the role of Onchain Digital Euro will only increase. As MiCA and subsequent regulatory revisions progress, and as Europe gradually opens up capital markets and Real World Asset opportunities, demand for euro stablecoins will also grow.
At the same time, Programmable euro stablecoins will have more uses, such as Programmable Money and Cross-border Settlement. I think EURC also has opportunities in emerging markets, as global businesses and households may wish to further diversify their monetary assets.
Circle already has several initiatives underway to continue expanding EURC's role in European and global markets.
Question 10: Arc often talks about the agent economy, but is Arc's biggest advantage actually that it provides an end-user-friendly environment where consumer-facing blockchain products can hide Crypto in the background, making it almost invisible to users?
Questioner: peterhaas
Jeremy Allaire:
This is a great question. The Arc public mainnet is launching on September 16th, and we are very excited.
Arc has roughly five core capabilities. AI Native and Agentic Applications are one of them. But interestingly, the factors that make Arc attractive for AI agents are precisely what make it more user-friendly for ordinary end-users.
Arc is a Stablecoin Native Chain. The network Gas Fee and Fee Model use USDC. Therefore, a user of an Arc application does not need to first go and buy another crypto token, or even understand what a Gas Fee is.
Arc transaction fees are very low, typically fractions of a cent, so developers can fully absorb these costs.
For example. You use Netflix. Netflix is built on Amazon Web Services, but when you pay Netflix, your bill doesn't have a separate line item for "AWS fees." You don't separately pay the cost of Netflix using cloud computing infrastructure.
Yet many past Blockchain Applications were exactly like that. Users needed to understand and pay for the underlying computing network's fees themselves. This is a ridiculous user experience. Users have no reason to care which computing network an app uses, or what the underlying transaction and data infrastructure costs.
Arc can make this layer completely disappear. Developers can absorb these Transaction Costs, just like development companies absorb AI Inference Costs, AWS costs, Google Cloud costs.
For enterprise developers, it's also much more convenient. Enterprises typically don't want to hold various Digital Commodities, perform complex accounting, handle compliance, and Custody just because they're developing an app. If an enterprise only needs to hold Digital Dollars to directly run infrastructure, it's much simpler from a financial, compliance, and legal perspective.
Therefore, I very much agree with the core judgment in your question. A primary design goal for Arc is to make the underlying Operating System invisible to users.
Users just need to use the application, whether it's a financial app, a governance app, or an agent app. Users care about the application itself, not the underlying technology.
When a technology is in its Early Adopter stage, users are usually willing to tolerate many technical barriers. But if blockchain is ultimately to serve billions of people, the underlying technology must become almost completely invisible. I think Arc is one of the most important attempts in the history of the entire blockchain industry to achieve this kind of Seamless User Experience.
And Circle's focus for achieving this goal is on developers. Because for a platform business, the core is always developers. You need to focus on how many developers you can attract, whether developers can succeed, and what kind of user experience developers ultimately create.
Circle is now preparing many related products to launch alongside the September Mainnet Launch. One of our focuses is enabling developers to create great user experiences very quickly, safely, and reliably. The security threat environment is markedly different now, so Safety, Trustworthiness, Infrastructure Robustness, and Simplicity have become very important.
Question 11: Even if the CLARITY Act does not pass in September, do you still believe USDC adoption will continue to grow?
Questioner: Jasmine_Sanchez
Jeremy Allaire:
Short answer: Absolutely.
First, stablecoins are becoming part of the legitimate financial system globally. This trend is happening almost simultaneously worldwide. And in many jurisdictions, Stablecoin Legislation is progressing even faster than broader crypto asset market structure legislation. This is true in Japan, in Europe, and in the US, the GENIUS Act has already passed.
It takes effect next January, formally making digital dollars like USDC part of the US financial system and the dollar financial system. This is a very significant development, and it will continue to drive stablecoin demand, growth, and activity.
Of course, I think the CLARITY Act is also very important. Because we want clear rules for other markets in the industry as well, including Trading Markets, Derivatives Markets, Tokenization, and capital markets. We want clear Registration and Regulatory Structures for these areas.
This is important for consumer protection, market competitiveness, and US competitiveness. But whether CLARITY passes or not does not determine whether stablecoins themselves can continue to grow. There is synergy between them, but Stablecoin Adoption itself has its own independent growth logic.
Also, I think it's easy to overly focus on the US and US policy. US policy is, of course, very important and influences global policy. But digital assets and digital currency are highly globalized, blockchain infrastructure itself is a global computing infrastructure, and regulatory regimes are emerging worldwide.
In fact, a large part of current stablecoin adoption occurs outside the US. Our opportunities come from 185 countries. Dozens of countries globally are generating stablecoin demand.
So focusing only on "what rules US companies can operate under now" easily misses the true scale of the trend. This is a highly globalized phenomenon, and Circle itself is a globalized company within this trend.
Of course, we still hope to see the relevant laws passed. If it doesn't pass in September, Congress will continue to advance it later. Meanwhile, US regulators have made it clear they will use Guidance and Rulemaking to allow digital asset markets to develop in a trusted, safe, and compliant manner.
Therefore, even if the CLARITY Act doesn't pass in September, I still believe USDC's development will continue.
Closing Remarks
Thank you for joining today's AMA. It was a great discussion. Looking forward to continuing the conversation in the coming quarters. Thank you.
