Circle, the issuer of USDC, quietly reduced its workforce by roughly 5% in the third quarter, recording $9.1 million in restructuring charges while remaining solidly profitable. In its Q3 earnings release on Nov. 4, the company said the cuts were designed to better align its organizational structure with its operating model and strategic priorities, though it did not specify affected teams or employee numbers. The charges were partly offset by a $5.7 million reversal of stock-based compensation tied to forfeited unvested shares.
Circle reported net income from continuing operations of $226 million, up 5% year over year, while total revenue and reserve income rose 17% to $865 million. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 85% to $317 million. Reserve income, Circle's largest revenue source from assets backing USDC, fell 8% to $658 million as average returns declined to 3.5%. Other revenue climbed to $207 million, including $182 million from the ARC token presale, which accounted for about 21% of total quarterly revenue.
The average amount of USDC in circulation increased 8% year over year to $73.3 billion but was flat at $73.9 billion by quarter-end. USDC's share of the U.S. dollar stablecoin market slipped to 27%. CEO Jeremy Allaire emphasized that USDC carried 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume, up from 66% a year earlier, and that Circle Payments Network ended the quarter at $41 billion in annualized volume, a 15-fold increase. He noted that the GENIUS Act takes effect in January and regulated digital dollars go mainstream.
The quarter also marked Circle's Arc blockchain public mainnet launch on Sept. 16, with 11 founding validators and more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders; BlackRock, DTCC and Visa were among permissioned validators. Circle reaffirmed its $400 million agreement to acquire Tazapay, a Singapore-based cross-border payments provider, with closing expected in 2027. The company also disclosed Binance's $100 million equity investment and an expanded five-year USDC partnership. The layoffs extend a broader crypto workforce reduction trend this year at Coinbase, BitGo, Bitwise, Luno and the Ethereum Foundation.
