Key facts
- Circle recorded $9.1 million in restructuring expenses, mostly severance and notice-period payments, partly offset by a $5.7 million stock-compensation reversal.
- Adjusted EBITDA rose 85% from a year earlier to $317 million, Circle said.
- Reserve income, Circle's largest revenue source, fell 8% to $658 million as interest rates on reserves declined.
- Other revenue rose to $207 million, including $182 million from the presale of ARC, the token for Circle's Arc blockchain.
- Average USDC in circulation rose 8% from a year earlier to $73.3 billion and ended the quarter flat at $73.9 billion.
- Circle said it agreed to acquire Singapore payments platform Tazapay, with closing planned for 2027 subject to regulatory approval.
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, cut about 5% of its workforce, according to its third-quarter earnings release on November 4. The reduction was "designed to better align our organizational structure with our operating model and strategic priorities," the company said in footnotes to its financial tables. Circle did not say how many employees were affected or which teams were cut.
Circle recorded $9.1 million in restructuring expenses in the quarter, mostly cash payments for notice periods and severance, employee benefits and related costs. Those were partly offset by a $5.7 million reversal of stock-based compensation, as unvested shares held by departing employees were forfeited.
The cuts came in a profitable quarter. Circle reported net income from continuing operations of $226 million, up 5% from a year earlier, on total revenue and reserve income of $865 million, up 17%. Adjusted EBITDA rose 85% year over year to $317 million.
Much of that growth came from outside Circle's core business. Other revenue rose to $207 million, including $182 million from the presale of ARC, the token for its Arc blockchain. Reserve income, the interest Circle earns on the assets backing USDC and its largest source of revenue, fell 8% to $658 million as interest rates on those reserves declined.
The average amount of USDC in circulation rose 8% from a year earlier to $73.3 billion, but ended the quarter flat at $73.9 billion. USDC's share of the US dollar stablecoin market slipped to 27%, according to the company.
CEO Jeremy Allaire did not mention the job cuts in his comments on the results, or in a tweet on November 4 calling the quarter "a big quarter for Circle." He said USDC carried 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume, up from 66% a year earlier, and that Circle's payments network ended the quarter at $41 billion in annualized volume, up 15-fold. "In January, the GENIUS Act takes effect and regulated digital dollars go mainstream," Allaire wrote.
The cuts come as Circle expands. In September, it launched the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain, with BlackRock, DTCC and Visa among its permissioned validators. Allaire said in October that Circle plans to enter about 40 emerging and developing markets, and the company has since teamed up with payments-technology firm ACI Worldwide to pilot USDC settlement on Colombia's instant-payments network. Circle also said it entered a definitive agreement to acquire Singapore payments platform Tazapay, with the transaction planned to close in 2027 subject to regulatory approval.