Circle | Crypto

Circle, Ripple among five stablecoin issuers conditionally approved for national trust banking charters as market hits $313 billion.

The conditional approvals clear a path for major crypto companies to operate as national trust banks under the supervision of the US OCC. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conditionally approved five national bank charter applications for companies tied to the digital assets industry. In a Friday notice, the OCC said it had conditionally approved BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos to convert their existing state-level trust companies into federally chartered national trust banks. In the same announcement, the regulator said it had conditionally approved new applications from Circle and Ripple for national trust bank charters. “New entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy,” said Jonathan Gould, the Comptroller of the Currency, adding: “The OCC will continue to provide a path for both traditional and innovative approaches to financial services to ensure the federal banking system keeps pace with the evolution of finance and su...

A new Circle–Aleo stablecoin project highlights the growing demand for privacy features as firms weigh blockchain use against the risks of transparency. Stablecoin issuer Circle is developing a privacy-enhanced version of its US dollar-pegged USDC token, aiming to spur institutional adoption by offering greater confidentiality than traditional public blockchains allow. The new stablecoin, called USDCx and targeting banking and enterprise users, is being built in partnership with the privacy-focused blockchain company Aleo, Fortune reported on Tuesday, citing Aleo co-founder Howard Wu. Unlike most existing stablecoins, which have wallet addresses and transaction details fully visible onchain, USDCx is designed to provide “banking-level privacy.” Circle would still be able to provide a compliance record if law enforcement or regulators request information on specific transactions, according to the report. Read more

Circle has secured a license in Abu Dhabi, enabling it to operate as a licensed Money Services Provider as the UAE accelerates its rollout of crypto regulations. Stablecoin issuer Circle has secured regulatory approval to operate as a financial service provider in the Abu Dhabi International Financial Center, deepening its push into the United Arab Emirates. In an announcement Tuesday, Circle Internet Group said it received a Financial Services Permission license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre of Abu Dhabi. This allows the stablecoin issuer to operate as a Money Services Provider in the IFC. The USDC (USDC) issuer also appointed Saeeda Jaffar as its managing director for Circle Middle East and Africa. The new executive also serves as a senior vice president and group country manager for the Gulf Operation Council at Visa and will be tasked with developing the stablecoin issuer’s regional strategy and partnerships. Read...

ARK Invest ramped up its crypto exposure on Friday, adding Bullish, BitMine, Circle, Robinhood and nearly $600K in Bitcoin ETFs as crypto equities attempted a rebound. ARK Invest closed out the week with a fresh round of accumulation across several of its flagship funds, picking up positions in Circle, Bullish, BitMine, Robinhood and Bitcoin ETFs as crypto-related equities rebounded. The largest set of purchases targeted Bullish, with ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) expanding their exposure, according to trade notifications for Friday. Combined, these buys amounted to about $2 million, following Bullish’s 5.75% gain on the day. ARK also continued accumulating BitMine, with purchases across ARKF, ARKK and ARKW totaling approximately $830,000. BitMine closed slightly lower on the day but remained within its recent trading range near $26. Read more

Crypto majors fell 7–12% in one of the year’s biggest selloffs, with Bitcoin down 8% to $95,200, Ethereum down 11% to $3,100, BNB down 7% to $895, and Solana down 12% to $137. A few assets bucked the trend, with ZEC up 3% and LEO up 1% among top movers. Bitcoin miners and crypto-related equities were hit as well, including declines in MicroStrategy (-7%), Coinbase (-7%), and Robinhood (-9%). Market sentiment remained deeply negative, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index holding in Extreme Fear at 16. In more positive news, JPMorgan analysts turned bullish on Circle, upgrading the stock to Overweight and raising their price target on expectations of faster USDC and stablecoin growth; Cathie Wood’s ARK added $30 million in shares. Jack Dorsey’s Cash App announced that stablecoin payments on Solana and other networks are planned for early 2026. Separately, reports surfaced that China state-backed hackers allegedly used Anthropic’s Claude Code to assist in a major cyberattack affecting roughly 30 companies. Additio...

Cathie Wood’s investment company, ARK Invest, is back to buying Circle, making its first purchases since selling 1.7 million shares in June. Cathie Wood’s investment company ARK Invest is back to buying shares of USDC issuer Circle as the stock sinks below $90. ARK bought a total of 542,269 Circle (CRCL) shares over the past two trading days, investing around $46 million, according to the firm’s daily trading disclosures seen by Cointelegraph. The two acquisitions — a $30.4 million purchase on Wednesday and a $15.5 million buy on Thursday — came amid a decline in CRCL shares, which closed at $86 and $82.30, respectively. Read more

The analysts said Circle’s third-quarter results were solid.

Circle is seeking to improve FX market infrastructure by offering institutions deeper global liquidity access with fewer intermediaries and reduced counterparty risk. Circle is expanding into the foreign-exchange market, positioning stablecoins as a tool to modernize one of traditional finance’s most entrenched systems. The issuer of USDC (USDC) on Thursday unveiled Circle StableFX, an institutional onchain FX platform built on Arc1, the company’s forthcoming layer-1 blockchain, according to a news release shared with Cointelegraph. Circle also introduced Circle Partner Stablecoins, a program designed to support regulated regional stablecoins. Trading in the global FX market reached $9.6 trillion per day in April, up 28% from 2022, according to data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The daily trading volume in the global FX market is more than double all global stock markets combined, and far exceeds the roughly $1.69 trillion in average daily US equities trading, running 24 hours a day, five ...

The stablecoin issuer considered stablecoin-denominated gas fees on Arc, but has a long-term goal of shifting to distributed governance. Stablecoin issuer Circle, the company behind the USDC dollar-pegged stablecoin, is planning a native token for its ARC layer-1 blockchain testnet, an enterprise-focused Ethereum Virtual Machine network. Circle launched the Arc testnet in October, with participation from investment bank Goldman Sachs, asset manager BlackRock, credit card company Visa and over 100 other companies.  The company, which disclosed plans for the new token alongside its earnings on Wednesday, initially planned to center gas fees on the Arc network around USDC (USDC) and other stablecoins. Read more

The US Treasury Department accepted comments related to the implementation of the stablecoin bill until Tuesday as part of the law’s planned rollout. Stablecoin issuer Circle has advocated for a level playing field among banks, nonbanks and stablecoin issuers as the US Treasury Department considers implementing the GENIUS Act following its signing into law in July.  In comments submitted on Tuesday as part of the Treasury’s notice of proposed rulemaking for GENIUS, Circle was one of many crypto companies that weighed in on how the US government should implement the law establishing a framework for payment stablecoins. While the company reiterated many of the principles for which proponents of the bill had advocated, such as having stablecoins “fully backed with cash and high quality liquid assets,” it also urged the government to set clear requirements for enforcement and consequences for noncompliance. Read more

The company updated its terms to prohibit the purchase or sale of weapons “in contravention of applicable laws,” suggesting that legally permissible transactions were possible. Stablecoin issuer Circle updated its policy for one of its tokens to clarify rules around prohibited transactions, explicitly addressing the use of legally obtained firearms and weapons. Crypto sleuths and reports from this week noted that Circle had updated its terms for its USDC (USDC) stablecoin. The terms specifically stated that the platform had the “right to monitor and, if appropriate, block or otherwise prevent transactions” related to the purchase of firearms, ammunition, explosives and other weapons. However, users noted that Circle had updated the terms to include weapons “in contravention of applicable laws,” suggesting that US-based users and others could legally purchase firearms using the stablecoin. Read more

Circle launches Arc's public testnet with 100+ major players like Visa, HSBC, and BlackRock testing its payments blockchain.

Circle’s new Arc blockchain testnet launches with participation from more than 100 institutions, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Visa and Mastercard. Circle, the world’s second-largest stablecoin issuer, launched the public testnet for Arc, its open layer-1 blockchain network built to bring global financial infrastructure onchain. The rollout, which Circle calls the “Economic Operating System for the internet,” includes participation from over 100 major companies spanning banking, capital markets and fintech — among them BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard and State Street, according to a Tuesday announcement. “With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said. “Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments,” he added. Read more

The dominance of Tether and Circle, once seen as unshakable, is now facing its most formidable test yet, crypto product and strategy professional James Murrell argues.

A consortium of nine banks has confirmed plans tied to Wall Street to explore a reserve-backed Stablecoin for G7 payments on public blockchains, engaged regulators, and evaluated a $50T payments landscape alongside tokenized deposit pilots. The post Wall Street Banks Unite to Launch Stablecoin Rivaling Tether and Circle appeared first on Cryptonews.

Circle is now a HYPE holder, has introduced native USDC to Hyperliquid and is considering becoming a network validator. Stablecoin issuer Circle is expanding into Hyperliquid with an investment and the launch of native USD Coin on the protocol, as stablecoin competition on the network intensifies. According to a Tuesday announcement, Circle is now a stakeholder in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, directly holding its native cryptocurrency Hyperliquid (HYPE). Circle is also considering becoming a validator for the protocol. The company, which went public on June 5, is behind the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, a digital asset redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. The token will be natively deployed on HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s smart contract layer. Read more

Stablecoin issuer Circle appears set to deepen its role in decentralized finance by preparing a native launch of USD Coin (USDC) on Hyperliquid’s Layer 1 chain, HyperEVM. On Sept. 12, blockchain researcher MLM Blockchain flagged test transactions involving USDC on HyperEVM’s mainnet, suggesting that a native deployment could roll out in the coming weeks. Adding […] The post Circle eyes deeper ties with Hyperliquid through potential native USDC launch appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Mega Matrix is betting big on Ethena, positioning itself as the first public proxy for the ecosystem as stablecoin regulation heats up. Public holding company Mega Matrix (MPU) has made the Ethena stablecoin ecosystem the centerpiece of its digital asset strategy, betting that the synthetic dollar project can capture market share from incumbents like Circle. The company’s push comes on the heels of the US GENIUS Act, a comprehensive stablecoin bill that establishes federal oversight of issuers, sets capital and liquidity requirements and creates a framework for banks and fintechs to issue dollar-pegged tokens under regulatory supervision. However, Circle is currently the only publicly traded option to capitalize on the enormous growth of stablecoins, Colin Butler, Mega Matrix’s executive vice president and global head of markets, told Cointelegraph. Read more

The Fireblocks network for stablecoin payments has launched with over 40 institutions, including Circle, Bridge, Zerohash, and Yellow Card. Supporting multiple stablecoins, it processed $212B in July and is now expanding into cross-border pilots with SMBC and Ava Labs. The post Stablecoin Adoption Explodes: Fireblocks Unveils Payment Network With Stripe Bridge, Circle, 40+ Firms appeared first on Cryptonews.