# USDC (Circle)

Updated: September 5, 2026

> USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, roughly $74.6 billion in early September 2026, issued by Circle since 2018. Reserves sit in a BlackRock-managed money-market fund and bank deposits, with monthly Deloitte attestations. It has been MiCA-compliant since July 2024 via a French EMI licence, and since July 2026 has been embedded into banking infrastructure through partnerships with Standard Chartered and BNY and its own OCC trust charter.

- **Issuer**: Circle Internet Group, Inc. (United States)
- **Launched**: October 2018
- **Backing type**: Fiat-backed, fully reserved
- **Reserve attestation**: Deloitte, monthly
- **Main networks**: Ethereum, Solana, Base, Avalanche, and others (37 networks)
- **Regulatory status**: MiCA EMI licence (France, since July 2024)
- **Market cap**: ~$74.6 billion (September 3, 2026)

## Overview

USDC is the token issued by Circle, originally launched in October 2018 jointly with Coinbase under the CENTRE Consortium (wound down in August 2023, when Circle consolidated full ownership of the token). The issuing company's own profile is covered in "Circle."

## Reserves and attestation

Most of USDC's reserves sit in the Circle Reserve Fund — an SEC-registered 2a-7 government money-market fund managed by BlackRock — plus deposits at systemically important and other banks and short-dated Treasuries and overnight reverse repo; monthly attestations are done by Deloitte, which replaced Grant Thornton as auditor in January 2023. For Q2 2026, Circle reported revenue and reserve income of $701 million (+7% year over year), net income of $48 million, adjusted EBITDA of $143 million (+8%), USDC in circulation of $73.3 billion (+19% year over year), and on-chain volume of $14.8 trillion (+151% year over year); the reserve return rate fell 66 basis points.

## Networks

Per Circle's own multi-chain page, USDC is issued on 37 networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon PoS, Stellar, Sui, Aptos, Algorand, Hedera, NEAR, XRPL, and others.

## Regulatory status and bank integration

On July 1, 2024, Circle became the first major stablecoin issuer to obtain a French e-money institution (EMI) licence from the ACPR — its Circle Mint France entity mints and redeems USDC and EURC in the EU — bringing it into compliance with MiCA ahead of the stablecoin rules taking effect on June 30, 2024; unlike USDT, the token kept its listings on licensed EU venues after the July 1, 2026 deadline. In the US, USDC picked up several banking integrations within two weeks in early July 2026: on July 2, Standard Chartered became the first global systemically important bank (G-SIB) to give institutional clients direct USDC minting and redemption through a single bank onboarding; days earlier, the world's largest custodian BNY made USDC the first stablecoin on its Digital Asset Custody platform; on July 10, the OCC granted Circle final approval to establish the national trust bank First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. (branded Circle National Trust), with migration of USDC reserve management under its own federal charter planned as a future capability.

## Incidents

Silicon Valley Bank failed on March 10–13, 2023; Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of USDC's reserves (about 8%) were held at the bank. USDC depegged, falling to $0.87–$0.88, but recovered to near $1.00 within about three days after US regulators announced SVB depositors would be made whole. Beyond this event, no comparable USDC-specific incident has been recorded.

## Sources

- [Circle, transparency and reserve composition page](https://www.circle.com/transparency)
- [Circle, multi-chain USDC page](https://www.circle.com/multi-chain-usdc)
- [Circle, Q2 2026 results press release](https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-reports-second-quarter-2026-results)
- [Circle, press release on the MiCA EMI licence (July 2024)](https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-is-first-global-stablecoin-issuer-to-comply-with-mica-eus-landmark-crypto-law)
- [Standard Chartered, press release on the USDC minting partnership](https://www.sc.com/en/press-release/standard-chartered-and-circle-launch-first-g-sib-led-integrated-access-to-usdc-minting-and-redemption/)
- [Circle, press release on the OCC national trust charter approval](https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-receives-final-occ-approval-to-establish-national-trust-bank)
- [CoinDesk, on USDC reserves held at Silicon Valley Bank (March 2023)](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/11/circle-confirms-33b-of-usdcs-cash-reserves-stuck-at-failed-silicon-valley-bank)
- [CoinMarketCap, USDC market data](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/)

## Mentioned in the digest

- [August 2026 — Circle's Q2 results against a third month of market contraction](https://stblcns.xyz/reports/State_of_Stablecoins_August_2026)
- [July 2026 — USDC becomes a banking product: Standard Chartered, BNY, the OCC trust charter](https://stblcns.xyz/reports/State_of_Stablecoins_July_2026)

Canonical: https://stblcns.xyz/en/wiki/stablecoins/usdc