Circle Beats Q3 Estimates on Arc Token Sale, Cuts 5% of Staff
Circle's revenue rose 17% to $865M, with $182M from a presale of its ARC token, even as interest income on USDC reserves slipped.
Circle reported Q3 revenue of $865M, up 17% from a year ago, and adjusted earnings of 84 cents a share, beating analysts' forecasts of $778M and 37 cents. Net income from continuing operations rose 5% to $226M.
What's the Scoop?
The ARC Boost: $182M came from a private presale of ARC, the native token of Circle's Arc blockchain, which launched in September. ARC will be used to secure and govern the network, with staking planned for 2027.
The Core Business: Reserve income, the interest Circle earns on the assets backing USDC, fell 8% to $658M as rates dropped. USDC averaged $73.3B in circulation, up 8%, while onchain volume rose 49% to $13.9T.
The Cuts: Circle also disclosed a ~5% workforce reduction and a $9.1M restructuring charge, without saying how many people were let go.
Elsewhere in Circle: The company agreed to buy Singapore payments firm Tazapay and kept its full-year guidance, and CoinDesk noted Circle flagged a $100M investment from Binance as a quarter highlight. CRCL slipped ~1% premarket.
David Christopher
David is a writer/analyst at Bankless. Prior to joining Bankless, he worked for a series of early-stage crypto startups and on grants from the Ethereum, Solana, and Urbit Foundations. He graduated from Skidmore College in New York. He currently lives in the Midwest and enjoys NFTs, but no longer participates in them.
