Circle Cuts About 5% of Staff as Third-Quarter Profit Beats Forecasts

In its earnings statement, Circle said the job cuts were "designed to better align our organizational structure with our operating model" and that it had booked a $9.1 million restructuring charge for them. Bloomberg described the cuts as part of a wider push at the company to adopt AI. Yahoo Finance estimated the cut at about 55 jobs, based on the roughly 1,100 full-time staff Circle had at the start of the year.

The cuts show the pressure on Circle's main business. Circle earns most of its money from interest on the reserves backing USDC, so lower rates reduce its income even when more of the token is in circulation. The company is trying to build other sources of revenue, including its own blockchain, and it is now doing so with fewer staff.

Total revenue and reserve income rose 17% from a year earlier to $865 million, Circle said in its results release. Reserve income fell 8% to $658 million. Circle said this was because its reserve return rate was 61 basis points lower, partly offset by an 8% rise in average USDC in circulation to $73.3 billion. Other revenue jumped 627% to $207 million. Most of that, $182 million, came from the presale of tokens for Arc, Circle's own blockchain, which is a one-off.

Net income from continuing operations rose 5% to $226 million, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 85% to $317 million. Yahoo Finance reported adjusted earnings of $0.84 a share, against a Wall Street forecast of $0.37. Accounts of how the shares reacted differed: some outlets reported a gain before the market opened and others a decline. Yahoo Finance said the stock had fallen 32% over the past 12 months.

USDC on-chain transaction volume rose 49% to $13.9 trillion in the quarter. Annualised payment volume on the Circle Payments Network reached $41.3 billion.

Chief executive Jeremy Allaire did not comment on the job cuts in the release. He said that "in Q3, we saw continued proof that institutions are building and expanding on USDC", and he described the company's work as "upgrading the system for a world where people, businesses, and AI agents all transact onchain."

Arc launched on public mainnet on September 16, with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders, Circle said. The company minted the full supply of 10 billion ARC tokens and plans to move the network to proof of stake in 2027. In the quarter, Circle also agreed to buy Tazapay, a Singapore-based cross-border business payments platform that says it handles more than $25 billion in annualised payment volume. It also received a $100 million equity investment from Binance as part of a renewed partnership to promote USDC, with a focus on emerging markets.

The Tazapay deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Circle is also replacing its chief financial officer: it said in September that Jeremy Fox-Geen would step down and help with the handover.