Circle
Circle is a United States financial-technology company founded in 2013 that issues USDC, a dollar stablecoin backed by cash and short-dated US Treasuries. Each USDC is meant to be redeemable one-for-one for a dollar, with reserves reported in monthly third-party attestations. In June 2025 Circle's parent went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, so "Circle" can mean either the stablecoin issuer or the listed company.
What is USDC and Circle?
Circle is the company; USDC is its product. USDC ("USD Coin") is a stablecoin — a crypto token designed to hold a value of one US dollar — that Circle issues and redeems. When you buy USDC through Circle, dollars go into reserve; when you redeem, USDC is destroyed and dollars come back out. That mint-and-burn model, rather than trading demand, is what is meant to keep the token near a dollar.
USDC runs on many blockchains (Ethereum, Solana, Base and others), which is why it turns up across exchanges, wallets and DeFi apps as a dollar substitute. The token is a claim on Circle's reserves, so its safety depends on those reserves and on Circle's ability to honour redemptions — the subject of the next section.
Is USDC safe? Reserves
USDC's safety rests on its reserves. Circle states that USDC is fully backed by cash and short-dated US Treasuries, with the bulk of the reserve held in a regulated government money-market fund and the remainder as cash at US banks. Circle publishes monthly attestations from an independent accounting firm reporting on the assets backing USDC in circulation. An attestation is a point-in-time report, not a full financial audit, but it is far more disclosure than many token issuers provide.
The main risk USDC has actually faced was not a hack but its banking: in March 2023 part of the reserve was briefly stranded at a failed bank and the token slipped below a dollar before recovering (see the incident record below). The practical takeaways are that USDC is only as strong as its reserves and redemption guarantee, and that holding a stablecoin still means trusting an issuer — it is not a bank deposit and carries no deposit insurance on the token itself.
Circle the public company (CRCL)
"Circle" is ambiguous, so it helps to separate the two meanings. The stablecoin issuer is what backs and redeems USDC. The listed company is Circle Internet Group, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL in June 2025, pricing its IPO at $31.00 per share. Owning CRCL is a bet on the company's business — much of its revenue comes from interest earned on USDC reserves — not a holding of USDC or of any cryptocurrency.
We do not quote a live CRCL share price here; a brokerage or the NYSE is the right source for that, just as our market page is the place for USDC's live price rather than this profile.
Incident record
About $3.3B of USDC's reserves — roughly 8% of the total — were held at Silicon Valley Bank when the FDIC seized it on 10 March 2023. As the exposure became known, USDC fell below its peg, trading around $0.88, before recovering to $1.00 after US regulators guaranteed SVB deposits on 12 March. Circle had also pledged to cover any shortfall with corporate funds. The peg and reserves were restored and no USDC holder ultimately lost money.
In our ratings
Where we score Circle against its peers on open data. The number lives there, not here.
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Frequently asked
Is USDC safe?+
USDC is backed by cash and short-dated US Treasuries, with monthly third-party attestations on the reserves. Its main stress test was the March 2023 depeg, when part of the reserve was briefly stranded at the failed Silicon Valley Bank; the peg recovered once US regulators guaranteed those deposits and no holder ultimately lost money. USDC is still an issuer's liability, not an insured bank deposit.
Did USDC lose its peg?+
Yes, briefly. In March 2023 about $3.3B of reserves were stuck at Silicon Valley Bank, and USDC fell to roughly $0.88 before returning to $1.00 after US regulators guaranteed SVB deposits. Reserves and the peg were fully restored.
What is the difference between Circle and CRCL?+
Circle is the company that issues the USDC stablecoin; CRCL is the NYSE ticker of its parent, Circle Internet Group, which went public in June 2025. Buying CRCL is owning a share in the company, not holding USDC or any cryptocurrency.
What changed
- 2026-09-28Profile created: founding, USDC reserves and monthly attestations, the June 2025 NYSE listing, and the March 2023 SVB depeg with a confirmed-recovery verdict.