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Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL - Get Free Report) CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $1,350,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 302,930 shares of the company's

A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses President Donald Trump and his family's crypto company of "corruptly profiting" off more than $2 billion in digital currency-related deals, violating constitutional restrictions on accepting foreign money.

"No president in American history has profited from his office so brazenly," alleges the federal civil complaint from a shareholder of Circle Internet Group, a publicly traded U.S. crypto company and competitor of the Trump family business, World Liberty Financial.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by shareholder and former Circle employee J. Benjamin Greenberg centers on two allegedly "illegal foreign emoluments" involving World Liberty and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security advisor to the United Arab Emirates.

Days before Trump's inauguration in January 2025, an entity backed by Tahnoon — widely known as the "Spy Sheikh" because of his powerful intelligence role — agreed to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty for $500 million.

The company told The Wall Street Journal, which revealed the transaction in January 2026, that Trump had no involvement in the deal. But Trump would receive millions of dollars from that purchase after becoming president, according to his financial disclosures.

The lawsuit also highlights a "scheme" by an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund chaired by Tahnoon to "inflate the value of President Trump's crypto holdings" through last year's purchase of $2 billion in World Liberty's stablecoin, USD1.

The lawsuit asserts the conduct violates the U.S. Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids federal officeholders from accepting money or other gifts from foreign officials without the consent of Congress.

"This is yet another frivolous lawsuit that echoes the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNBC in a statement. "There are no conflicts of interest."

"What President Trump did is brazenly corrupt. He's made millions from these deals by selling out the American people," Matt Pelikan, an attorney at Evergreen Legal representing Greenberg, said in a statement to CNBC.

"We're suing to stop the corruption and to force President Trump to return the profits to American taxpayers," Pelikan said.

The suit says Greenberg is filing derivatively on behalf of Circle. The company said in a statement to CNBC it was not behind the lawsuit and does not comment on pending litigation.

"Circle did not initiate, direct, authorize, or participate in the filing," the company said via a spokesperson.

The suit names Trump, World Liberty and U.S. Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff as defendants, as well as four related limited liability companies.

"World Liberty Financial is compliant with all U.S. laws and regulations," David Wachsman, a World Liberty spokesperson, told CNBC. "No one at World Liberty Financial works for the U.S. Government. These claims are without merit and we look forward to resolving them in court."

The White House and a spokesperson for Witkoff did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on the lawsuit.

In addition to seeking a court declaration that Trump's profits violate the Constitution, Greenberg wants the president to disclose all other foreign crypto emoluments he's received and return any profits found to be illegal.

Trump and his family have rapidly expanded their crypto business since he returned to the White House. World Liberty Financial, launched with members of the Trump and Witkoff families in 2024, operates the USD1 stablecoin, and an entity affiliated with Trump and his family owns about 38% of the company.

The business has been highly lucrative for Trump even as WLFI investors suffered steep losses. Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto income in his 2025 annual financial disclosure, including nearly $800 million tied to World Liberty. WLFI, meanwhile, fell from about 45 cents in August 2025 to about 5 cents by the end of June 2026.

The venture has drawn particular scrutiny over its ties to the UAE. Months after Tahnoon's 2025 investment, the administration expanded UAE access to advanced U.S. AI chips, including for G42, a UAE state-backed AI company controlled by Tahnoon.

U.S. lawmakers have sought information about those dealings and signaled that Trump family business transactions could face further investigation if Democrats gain subpoena power in Congress in the 2026 midterm election.

Federal regulators just finalized the stablecoin rulebook, and crypto stocks are surging in response, but the biggest winner is not the company that issues USDC. Here is what the market is signaling about the new rules and who stands to…

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Federal bank regulators have finished the rules for U.S. stablecoin issuers, and buyers are spreading their money across crypto equities in response. Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL | CRCL Price Prediction) stock is up 6% to $90.65 in afternoon trading. That gain is the market’s first verdict on a finished federal framework for the company behind USDC.

Meanwhile, Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) stock is jumping 8% to $154.41, beating Circle Internet stock as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) rides a broader lift in crypto sentiment. Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) stock is up 5% to $178.86, a small step behind Circle Internet stock as the largest U.S. crypto exchange joins the advance. Strategy stock’s lead stands out because the new rules target stablecoin issuers directly, which points to buying that reaches well beyond USDC.

Two funds show how strong the crypto rally is compared with the rest of the market. Built to follow the cryptocurrency, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT) is up 3% to $47.94. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 0.5% to $772.68, a modest gain that leaves crypto names far ahead of the broad market.

OCC Finalizes the GENIUS Act Rulebook Under the GENIUS Act, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finalized its rules for stablecoin issuers, setting requirements for reserve backing, redemption and risk management. Both the regulation and the law take effect next January, while anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements will follow in a separate rulemaking. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called the GENIUS Act “a watershed moment in American finance.”

Circle Internet’s Q2 2026 report showed how tightly its business is tied to reserves. The company’s revenue rose 6.6% year over year to $701.3 million, while average USDC in circulation climbed 25% to $76.5 billion. Management also lifted its full-year guidance for other revenue, the line built on subscriptions and services, a sign that the business is branching out beyond reserve interest.

Implications for Circle Internet and Peers That reliance on reserve income cuts both ways for Circle Internet stock. A finished OCC framework strengthens the USDC issuer’s pitch. The pitch targets banks and asset managers already expanding their stablecoin use, yet its reserve return rate has slipped to 3.5% as interest rates declined. Year to date, Circle Internet stock is up 14%, which gives the shares some cushion as the rules roll out.

Strategy offers a more leveraged route into crypto, with Strategy shares closely tied to swings in Bitcoin, and beating Circle Internet stock while the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF also climbs, Strategy stock signals that buyers are adding across crypto equities. Such tight linkage also leaves Strategy shares vulnerable whenever Bitcoin loses momentum.

Coinbase sits between Circle Internet and Strategy on that spectrum. As a USDC co-founder that shares stablecoin revenue with Circle Internet, the exchange operator gains from the new rules and from any increase in trading sentiment. Down 21% year to date, Coinbase stock still carries a steep deficit that moderates the rebound.

USDC Adoption Is Circle Internet’s Next Proof Point The next test for Circle Internet is whether the finalized framework brings new USDC adoption once the law takes effect, and a separate anti-money laundering and sanctions rulemaking will show whether the remaining compliance pieces hold up as well as the reserve and redemption standards.

With Circle Internet’s growing list of institutional partners able to speed that adoption and lower interest rates possibly squeezing reserve income, investors weighing their exposure should adjust their holdings carefully.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Teams from the companies are collaborating on how open identity and payment protocols can work together so businesses can trust transactions made by agents.At Money20/20, teams from Proof and Circle will demonstrate a demo of an AI agent presenting a verified Proof credential over x401 and paying in USDC over x402 from a Circle Agent Wallet. BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proof and Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) today announced a collaboration showing how verified legal identity and machine-native payments can work together in agent transactions. At Money20/20, teams from the companies will demonstrate a demo of an AI agent completing an identity-gated purchase where the agent presents a verified Proof credential using x401, Proof's open identity protocol, and pays the merchant in USDC over x402 using a Circle Agent Wallet.

THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES

AI agents can already find services, place orders and pay. The business on the other side still can't reliably tell who sent the agent or whether that person approved the transaction. Without that, the only safe choices are to block agents or let them through blind.

There is a second gap. Identity providers that have already verified a person have no practical way to be paid when that verification is reused somewhere new. A business that wants to rely on another company's identity check usually needs a contract with that provider first, which limits a verified identity to the few businesses that signed up in advance.

Two open protocols now address both halves of the problem. x402, which Circle supports across its agentic products, uses the web's HTTP 402 "Payment Required" response so a site can tell an agent what payment it needs. x401, which Proof published in June, uses the HTTP 401 "Unauthorized" response so a site can tell an agent what proof of identity it needs. One answers how an agent pays, and the other answers who it acts for. Used together, they also let a business pay an identity provider for each check on the spot, without a sales process or a negotiated agreement.

WHAT THE DEMO SHOWS

An identity request alongside a price. A merchant responds to an agent with two requirements. The first is an x401 request naming the fact it needs, the credential issuers it trusts and how strongly the identity must have been verified. The second is an x402 payment request in USDC.A verified credential, disclosed selectively. The Proof wallet presents the person's verified credential along with a signed approval for that specific purchase. It proves only the relevant facts without revealing the rest of their ID. The merchant checks the credential's signature against Proof's published public keys, without calling Proof or storing personal information.Payment in USDC. The agent pays the merchant in USDC over x402 from a Circle Agent Wallet, and the order completes. The merchant keeps signed, tamper-evident evidence of who approved the purchase, which it can use if the transaction is later disputed, without receiving a full copy of the person’s ID document. IDENTITY AND PAYMENTS, IN BOTH DIRECTIONS

Proof and Circle share an interest in how agent identity and agentic payments fit together, including how businesses could pay identity issuers for each verification in USDC over x402. Proof prices identity claims individually to confirm a single fact such as age. If those payments settle over x402, the protocol could run in both directions in one transaction: the shopper's agent pays the merchant, and the merchant pays the identity issuer.

"AI agents can already pay. What a merchant still can't see is who stands behind the payment and whether that person approved it. Our demo with Circle shows one exchange can answer both questions: verified identity from Proof and payment in USDC. That gives businesses a reason to say yes to agents instead of blocking them."
— Pat Kinsel, founder and chief executive officer, Proof

"Agents that can pay also need a way to show who they act for. At Money20/20, we're demonstrating what that might look like with Proof: a verified credential and a USDC payment in the same flow. Identity and payments are closely linked in the agentic economy, and we're continuing to explore how they come together so businesses can trust the transactions agents make.”
— Gagan Mac, VP Product, Circle

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

Proof and Circle will show this flow end to end at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, October 19–21, at Proof booth 5069. On Monday, October 19th, Gagan Mac and Pat Kinsel will also discuss who vouches for an agent acting in a customer's name at Proof's CHICA panel on October 19. Developers can book a meeting and sign up for implementation sessions at www.proof.com/money-2020.

HOW THE IDENTITY IS ESTABLISHED

Each Proof credential comes from identity proofing certified by Kantara at NIST IAL2, a federal standard for strong identity verification. Proof's WebTrust-audited certificate authority issues the credential and ties it to a hardware-protected key. The person owns the credential and can reuse it across services instead of verifying again for each one.

AVAILABILITY

x401 is an open protocol available from Proof at proof.com/x401. Circle Agent Wallets and x402 payments are available through Circle Agent Stack at agents.circle.com. Consumers can claim a Proof credential at proof.com/id.

ABOUT PROOF

Proof operates identity infrastructure for high-consequence transactions, including a WebTrust-audited certificate authority, PKI-anchored credentials and a network of more than 8,000 businesses across mortgage, auto, wealth, insurance and enterprise. More than $1 trillion in transactions have been secured on the platform. Proof published x401 as an open protocol in June 2026 and is the first to put verified legal identity for AI agents into production. Learn more at proof.com.

ABOUT CIRCLE INTERNET GROUP, INC.

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world's leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through programmable blockchain infrastructure, digital assets, and payment applications. Circle's platform includes the world's largest stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Proof: [email protected]
Circle: [email protected]

Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL.N) is making a major push to enter about 40 emerging and developing countries around the world as blockchain adoption is expected to scale up significantly, the company's CEO and ​chairman Jeremy Allaire told Reuters.

"We're kind of going through an inflection point...a transition right now, ‌and that transition is essentially moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase," said Allaire, who is also co-founder of the New York-listed company. He was speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings ​in Bangkok.

Markers in regions like Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are seeing rising ​organic demand for stablecoins and digital utility from individual and businesses wanting to part ⁠of an internet-based economic system, Allaire said.

Circle, the world’s largest regulated stablecoin issuer, is accelerating its global expansion, ​backed by a $400 million acquisition of Tazapay and a $100 million strategic investment from Binance.

It holds roughly 25% of the ​global stablecoin market share, while rival USDT, which is issued by Tether, commands nearly 60%. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable value relative to traditional cyrptos.

Their increasing adoption is being driven by clearer regulatory frameworks, such as the U.S. Genius Act ​which is slated to take effect next January. Circle in July became one of the first stablecoin issuers to ​hold a federal bank charter.

"When the Genius Act goes into law, the world will have legal digital dollars...That is a watershed ‌moment," ⁠Allaire said.

Circle's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin USDC saw a 19% year-over-year rise in circulation to $73.3 billion in the second quarter this year.

Banking coalitions in the U.S. and European markets are moving rapidly to develop and deploy their own stablecoins and digital asset solutions, which Allaire said was a sign of a healthy and competitive market.

"There's a very, very ​long time where the banking ​industry fought successfully to ⁠keep other people out, and I think they are no longer in charge, and the innovators are having their day," he said.

Major financial institutions and payment firms are ​moving past pilot programs to embed stablecoins for cross-border settlements and asset transfers. Circle ​offers on-chain ⁠infrastructure via its Arc operating system, which has been adopted by firms including BlackRock (BLK.N), Visa (V.N) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L).

A surge in machine-to-machine transactions among AI agents has also propelled USDC use, Allaire said. They execute fractions-of-a-cent payments when doing web research ⁠or ​scraping real-time data.

The executive also warned that the rapid expansion of ​AI brings heightened security vulnerabilities, noting that financial infrastructure providers face escalating threats from sophisticated actors and automated agent swarms.

"If you're not concerned about it, ​then your head is in the sand, right?” he said.

Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE:CRCL – Get Free Report) shares rose 6.6% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as high as $85.90 and last traded at $86.1910. Approximately 3,344,631 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 14,604,768 shares. The stock had previously closed at $80.84.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on shares of Circle Internet Group from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Circle Internet Group from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research increased their price target on Circle Internet Group from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Circle Internet Group from $87.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on Circle Internet Group and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Circle Internet Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.82.

Get Our Latest Report on CRCL

Circle Internet Group Stock Up 4.7% The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $84.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $87.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.49 billion, a PE ratio of 57.98 and a beta of 0.73. Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.26 by ($0.08). Circle Internet Group had a return on equity of 13.58% and a net margin of 15.53%. The firm had revenue of $701.32 million for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($4.48) earnings per share. Circle Internet Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Circle Internet Group, Inc. will post 1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Circle Internet Group In related news, CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen sold 4,238 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total value of $363,535.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 302,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,985,335.40. This represents a 1.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Hossein Razzaghi sold 1,830 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total value of $156,977.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 641,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,012,258.04. This represents a 0.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 485,657 shares of company stock valued at $39,207,306. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Circle Internet Group Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRCL. IDG Accel China Capital II Associates L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Circle Internet Group during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $554,792,000. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Circle Internet Group by 175.0% in the first quarter. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP now owns 3,300,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $314,853,000 after buying an additional 2,100,000 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Circle Internet Group by 13.3% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,917,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,384,000 after buying an additional 342,080 shares during the last quarter. Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its holdings in Circle Internet Group by 13.4% in the first quarter. Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,914,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $278,173,000 after acquiring an additional 344,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SBI Holdings USA Inc. acquired a new stake in Circle Internet Group in the second quarter valued at $101,084,820.

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Circle Internet Group, Inc is a global financial technology company that develops infrastructure for digital currencies and blockchain-based payments. Its primary product is USD Coin (USDC), a dollar-denominated stablecoin designed to maintain a stable value and support digital transactions, payments and transfers across blockchain networks. Circle also issues EURC, a euro-denominated stablecoin.

The company provides institutional and developer-focused services through Circle Mint, which enables eligible businesses to create, redeem and manage USDC and access related payment and treasury tools.

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 9, 2026) - Corcel Exploration Inc. (CSE: CRCL) (OTCQB: CRLEF) (FSE: Y67) (the "Company" or "Corcel") today announced the closing of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") issuing 26,765,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of CAD$2,676,500.

Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.20 per Warrant Share until the date which is 24 months following the Closing Date, or October 8, 2028.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for exploration at its Yuma King Project in Arizona and for working capital purposes.

In connection with the Offering, the Company paid finders fees of $126,990 cash and issued 1,269,900 finder's warrants of the Company (the "Finder's Warrants") to eligible finders. Each Finder's Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Share at a price of $0.20 per Share until October 8, 2028.

All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring February 9, 2027.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities in any jurisdiction

About Corcel Exploration Inc.

Corcel Exploration is a mineral resource company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of precious and base metals properties throughout North America. The Company has entered a long-term lease agreement to acquire the Yuma King Cu-Au project in Arizona, which spans a district-scale land position of 3,200 hectares comprising 515 unpatented federal mining claims in the Ellsworth Mining District, including the past-producing Yuma King Mine which saw underground production of copper, lead, gold and silver between 1940 and 1963. For more information, please visit our website at https://corcelexploration.com/.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, statements with respect to obtaining the required regulatory approvals and the proposed use of proceeds of the Offering.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company at the date of this news release, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, operational and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include, without limitation: future commodity prices and exchange rates; availability of financing on reasonable terms; availability of equipment, personnel and infrastructure; maintenance of title and access to properties; obtaining all required regulatory, surface and community approvals on expected terms and within expected timelines; accuracy of current technical information; and the absence of material adverse changes in applicable laws, political conditions, taxation, or capital markets.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such risks include, without limitation: commodity price volatility; exploration, development, metallurgical and geological risk; permitting, environmental and regulatory risk; title and access risk; financing and liquidity risk; reliance on contractors and third parties; community, ESG and social license risk; political and security risk in foreign jurisdictions; operational disruptions, accidents and labour matters; changes in laws and taxation; dilution and capital markets risk; and the other risks more fully described under "Risk Factors" in the Company's continuous disclosure filings available under its profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. WIRE SERVICES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/318186

Source: Corcel Exploration Inc.

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL) will report its financial results for the third quarter 2026 on Wednesday, November 4.

A live video webcast will be held at 8 a.m. ET to discuss financial results and business highlights. The webcast will be available through Circle’s official YouTube and X channels.

Access to all related materials and links, including a replay and transcript following the event, will be available at circle.com/investors.

During the webcast, management will address a selection of shareholder questions submitted in advance via Say Technologies Q&A platform. The platform will open October 28, 2026 at 9 a.m. ET and close November 3, 2026 at 9 a.m. ET.

Disclosure Information

In addition to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Circle uses its Investor Relations website (https://investor.circle.com), its blog (https://www.circle.com/blog), press releases (https://www.circle.com/pressroom), public conference calls and webcasts, including through its YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@BuildOnCircle), its X feed (https://x.com/circle), and its LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/circle-internet-financial) as a means of disclosing material nonpublic information, announcing upcoming investor conferences and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor these sites in addition to following Circle’s SEC filings.

About Circle Internet Group, Inc.

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world’s leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through programmable blockchain infrastructure, digital assets, and payment applications. Circle’s platform includes the world’s largest stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation.

More News From Circle Internet Group, Inc.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 5, 2026) - Corcel Exploration Inc. (CSE: CRCL) (OTCQB: CRLEF) (FSE: Y67) (the "Company" or "Corcel") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated August 31, 2026, in response to significant investor demand, the Company has increased the gross proceeds of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") from $1,500,000 to C$2,500,000. Under the upsized Offering, the Company will issue up to 25,000,000 units of the Company (the "Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit.

Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole common share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.20 per Warrant Share until the date which is 24 months following the Closing Date (as defined below).

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for exploration and working capital purposes.

Closing of the Offering is anticipated to occur on or about October 8, 2026 (the "Closing Date") and is subject to customary closing conditions including, but not limited to, the submission of all required forms to the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"). In connection with the Offering, the Company may pay finder's fees to eligible finders, subject to compliance with the policies of the CSE and applicable securities legislation. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and a day from the Closing Date.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

About Corcel Exploration Inc.

Corcel Exploration is a mineral resource company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of precious and base metals properties throughout North America. The Company has entered a long-term lease agreement to acquire the Yuma King Cu-Au project in Arizona, which spans a district-scale land position of 3,200 hectares comprising 515 unpatented federal mining claims in the Ellsworth Mining District, including the past-producing Yuma King Mine which saw underground production of copper, lead, gold and silver between 1940 and 1963. For more information, please visit our website at https://corcelexploration.com/.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information in this news release includes, without limitation, statements with respect to obtaining the required regulatory approvals, completion of the Offering, the anticipated Closing Date and the proposed use of proceeds of the Offering.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company at the date of this news release, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, operational and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. These assumptions include, without limitation: future commodity prices and exchange rates; availability of financing on reasonable terms; availability of equipment, personnel and infrastructure; maintenance of title and access to properties; obtaining all required regulatory, surface and community approvals on expected terms and within expected timelines; accuracy of current technical information; and the absence of material adverse changes in applicable laws, political conditions, taxation, or capital markets.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Such risks include, without limitation: commodity price volatility; exploration, development, metallurgical and geological risk; permitting, environmental and regulatory risk; title and access risk; financing and liquidity risk; reliance on contractors and third parties; community, ESG and social license risk; political and security risk in foreign jurisdictions; operational disruptions, accidents and labour matters; changes in laws and taxation; dilution and capital markets risk; and the other risks more fully described under "Risk Factors" in the Company's continuous disclosure filings available under its profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

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Key Takeaways Coinbase expands Citi tie-up to let institutional clients accept stablecoin payments through Spring by Citi.Virtual Accounts can receive, hold and transfer funds, with incoming fiat converted into stablecoins.Stablecoin payments and settlement could broaden recurring revenues and cut reliance on retail crypto trading. Coinbase Global’s (COIN - Free Report) expanded partnership with Citigroup underscores the growing shift of stablecoins from a crypto-native product toward mainstream institutional payments infrastructure. Per the arrangement, Citi’s institutional clients can accept stablecoin payments through Spring by Citi, with Coinbase providing the underlying digital-asset rails and automatically converting stablecoins into fiat for settlement by Citi as the bank of record.

The partnership also extends to Coinbase Virtual Accounts, which use Citi’s Virtual Account Wallet infrastructure. These accounts provide payment customers with bank-account-like functionality, including the ability to receive, hold and transfer funds, while incoming fiat can be automatically converted into stablecoins. Citi, in turn, supplies the regulated banking framework needed to connect these digital-asset flows with the broader financial system. The agreement builds on the companies’ October 2025 collaboration focused on fiat-to-crypto payment infrastructure.

Strategically, the partnership strengthens Coinbase’s position at the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain-based payments. Coinbase brings digital-asset and stablecoin infrastructure serving a market of more than 150 million stablecoin holders, while Citi contributes global banking capabilities across more than 180 countries and jurisdictions.

Importantly, greater exposure to stablecoin payments, USDC balances, conversion and settlement could broaden Coinbase’s recurring transaction-related revenues and reduce its dependence on the more cyclical retail crypto-trading business.

What About COIN’s Peers?Stablecoins, especially USDC, are also fundamental to Circle Internet Group’s (CRCL - Free Report) business strategy. As USDC’s issuer, Circle earns revenues through interest on reserves and transaction flows. Stablecoins also support Circle’s expansion into payments, DeFi, and global finance, reinforcing its role as a core infrastructure provider in the digital asset ecosystem.

Stablecoins are playing a growing role in BlackRock Inc.’s (BLK - Free Report) digital strategy. Through its partnership with Circle, BlackRock manages USDC reserves, gaining direct exposure to stablecoin infrastructure. This supports BlackRock’s broader push to modernize finance by leveraging blockchain technology for tokenized assets, real-time settlements and more efficient capital markets.

COIN’s Price PerformanceShares of COIN have lost 14.4% in the year-to-date period, underperforming the industry.

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COIN’s Expensive ValuationCOIN trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.71, significantly above the industry average of 14.76. 

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Estimate Movement for COINThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for COIN’s third-quarter and fourth-quarter 2026 earnings per share (EPS) witnessed northbound movement in the last 30 days. The same holds true for 2026 and 2027.
 

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Circle Internet Group CRCL has seen its stock decline following the announcement that CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen will step down after over five years in the role. This transition raises concerns about financial leadership as the company has experienced consecutive revenue shortfalls. Fox-Geen will remain until December 2026 unless a successor is found sooner, and CRCL has engaged an executive-search firm to assist in this process.

Fox-Geen played a crucial role in establishing CRCL's finance organization and successfully navigating its $1.2 billion IPO. His departure emphasizes the need for continuity in forecasting, capital allocation, and investor relations. The planned transition period and Fox-Geen's intention to take a break before his next role help alleviate worries about immediate operational issues. CRCL's new partnership with Volante Technologies aims to enhance banks' ability to test USDC within existing payment systems. While this collaboration does not yet involve a production deployment or financial terms, it could potentially create a valuable distribution channel for CRCL, as Volante serves four of the top five global corporate banks and seven of the top ten U.S. banks. The collaboration will allow banks to test various functionalities, including minting, redemption, and wallet-to-wallet payments. Although this initiative could lower barriers to adoption, further developments involving Circle Mint and joint marketing efforts are still in progress. In Q2, USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion, reflecting a 19% year-over-year increase, while quarterly on-chain transaction volume surged by 151% to $14.8 trillion. Despite this growing usage, consistent revenue outperformance has yet to materialize.The transition of the CFO introduces execution risks to an investment case focused on converting rapid USDC adoption into sustainable revenue growth. While Fox-Geen's extended handoff period provides some stability, the collaborations with Volante, Arc, and Binance are pivotal for expanding CRCL's reach. However, declining reserve yields could counterbalance circulation growth, and the partnership with Volante remains an evaluation framework rather than a guarantee of transaction volume. CRCL must secure a capable CFO successor to manage rate sensitivity, partner economics, platform investments, and revenue diversification. Key indicators to watch include Volante clients moving into production, sustained USDC circulation growth, increasing non-reserve revenue, Arc activity, and improved top-line conversion.

This stock alert was generated using automated technology and GuruFocus financial data to provide readers with timely and accurate market reporting. This content was reviewed by GuruFocus editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

Disclosures I/We may personally own shares in some of the companies mentioned above. However, those positions are not material to either the company or to my/our portfolios.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL) today announced that Jeremy Fox-Geen intends to step down as Chief Financial Officer after more than five years in the role. To assist with a smooth transition, he will continue as Chief Financial Officer through the end of December 2026, unless a successor is appointed sooner.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle Foundation, a philanthropic initiative supported by Circle Internet Group, Inc.'s (NYSE: CRCL) 1% equity commitment, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP), today announced two initiatives to improve digital payments for development and humanitarian action. The initiatives will explore how digital payments and improved digital financial infrastructure can help international organizations move resources, deliver suppor.

Key Takeaways Circle secured a $100M strategic investment from Binance through a private stock placement.Binance will promote, expand awareness and integrate USDC across its platform under the five-year deal.Circle will provide infrastructure for holding and using USDC as the partnership expands access. Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL - Free Report) is deepening its relationship with Binance through a $100 million strategic equity investment and a new five-year commercial agreement. The partnership aims at expanding USDC access across emerging markets while providing Circle another large distribution channel for its dollar-backed stablecoin.

The investment was made through a private placement of Circle Class A common stock at a purchasing price reflecting a 5% discount to CRCL’s market price before closing. Binance has agreed not to transfer the shares for up to two years from the closing date, subject to customary exceptions. Under the agreement, Binance will accelerate USDC promotion, awareness and integration on its platform, while Circle will provide infrastructure for holding and using the stablecoin.

The Binance investment comes as Circle’s USDC business continues to expand. USDC ended the second quarter of 2026 with $73.3 billion in circulation, up 19% year over year, while quarterly on-chain transaction volume reached $14.8 trillion, surged 151%. Circle also posted $701 million in revenues and reserve income, up 7%.

CRCL’s Other Partnerships and Network ExpansionCircle has been widening its institutional partnerships. BNY added USDC minting and redemption to its Digital Asset Custody platform, while Standard Chartered launched bank-led access to USDC minting and redemption for institutional clients. Nium connected USDC settlement to its payout network spanning more than 190 countries, and JCB began working with Circle on cross-border treasury transfers and stablecoin payment experiences in Japan.

Circle is also expanding the ecosystem around its Arc blockchain. BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized liquidity fund is expected to deploy on Arc, while DTCC is expected to enable the tokenization of DTC-custodied assets. Meanwhile, Circle Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume at the end of the second quarter, up 76% sequentially, with 175 financial institutions enrolled.

Over the past three months, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 31.4% compared with the industry's growth of 1.7%.

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Stocks to ConsiderSome better-ranked stocks from the Zacks Financial-Miscellaneous Services sector are Bread Financial (BFH - Free Report) and Virtu Financial (VIRT - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BFH’s 2026 earnings per share (EPS) has moved 2 cents northward to $12.12 over the past month.

The consensus estimate for VIRT’s 2026 EPS has moved up 16 cents to $7.02 over the past two months.

Shares of Circle Internet Group Inc (NYSE:CRCL) are down 1% to trade at $93.48, despite a $100 million investment from Binance to promote its USDC stablecoin.

Binance is investing $100 million in stablecoin issuer Circle as part of a five-year deal calling for world's largest crypto exchange to promote Circle's flagship USDC on its platform.

Shares of Circle rose more than 1% in premarket trading Tuesday.

The agreement signals a push to expand USDC beyond its historically U.S.-focused base and compete more directly with stablecoin giant Tether in international crypto markets. Under terms of the deal, USDC gains access to Binance's large global user base in exchange for Circle paying Binance "a monthly incentive fee" tied to USDC balances.

Aligning its financial interests with USDC growth, Binance agreed to buy $100 million of Circle shares at $80.84 each, subject to a lockup of as long as two years, with some exceptions.

"Binance has built one of the largest and most dynamic platforms in the world for using digital currency, creating the internet's largest financial super app, and becoming the most widely used wallets in the world for dollar stablecoins," Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. "We see incredible opportunities to leverage USDC to expand dollar access, support savings and investment with innovative digital asset products and reach people and businesses throughout global emerging markets."

Circle expansionCircle has been trying to build a business beyond issuing USDC – launching its Arc blockchain last week and pushing into nanopayments and agentic commerce – but the company still needs USDC to drive that expansion. By putting it in front of Binance's wide base of users, Circle is betting its flagship product can gain ground internationally and help build out other parts of the business.

"Circle has earned its place as one of the most credible issuers in the world spanning USDC, Arc and the infrastructure reshaping how value moves across borders," Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said in a statement. With the latest partnership, Binance is "helping to build a more inclusive, transparent and compliant digital economy. A stable, trusted digital dollar should not be a privilege – it should be available to anyone with a phone. That's the future this partnership is designed to deliver."

Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT stablecoins aim to serve as digital versions of the U.S. dollar, keeping a stable 1-to-1 value with the dollar, but have taken different paths to win users and financial partners.

USDT remains larger, with roughly $183 billion in circulation versus about $75 billion for USDC, according to CryptoQuant, and has a strong international trading presence. USDC, meanwhile, has built its pitch around regulated markets, transparency and payments. The fight between the two is ultimately a battle over which becomes the default for global crypto trading, payments and finance.

Ripple just wired XRP into Stripe's agent payment system, where software buys services from other software without a human touching a keyboard. But the reason its own stablecoin cannot do the same job reveals something important about how the XRP…

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Ripple has connected XRP to a payment system where the buyer is a piece of software rather than a person. The process involves that software requesting a service, which then quotes a price. The software approves the charge, and the service delivers, all without any human interaction at a keyboard, a checkout page, or a card field. This automated transaction structure is known as an agent payment.

On September 17, 2026, Ripple integrated the XRP Ledger into this flow through a standard co-authored by Stripe and Tempo, a blockchain built for payments that launched its mainnet in March. The streaming component of this flow operates on XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) because RLUSD cannot handle that part yet. So, what exactly has Ripple connected, and what benefits does this bring to holders?

What Ripple Connected to Stripe

Ripple released version 1.1 of the XRPL AI Starter Kit, which now includes support for the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) and the Open Wallet Standard. MPP is particularly significant for Stripe, which co-authored the protocol with Tempo. The kit initially launched in June, and this update builds on an existing resource available to developers.

The Open Wallet Standard gives wallets a common interface across different blockchains and lets an agent request a transaction without accessing the main private keys, under spending limits and approved destinations set by the account owner.

This functionality is made possible through XRP Ledger 3.3.0’s Permission Delegation feature, which allows another account limited authority to perform specific transaction types rather than having full control. Although granting a wallet access to software may seem risky, it operates within predetermined spending limits.

Ripple has also chosen not to favor one open standard for agent commerce over the other. It added support for x402, a standard backed by Coinbase, Stripe, and Cloudflare, in June, and now backs both.

The x402 protocol has already facilitated between 75 million and 120 million machine-to-machine payments in recent months, amounting to millions of dollars, with each transaction costing a fraction of a cent. Ripple maintains a premier membership in the x402 Foundation alongside Coinbase, Circle, AWS, Google, Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa, and it is also a launch partner for Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines.

Why Sessions Run on XRP, Not RLUSD

Jazzi Cooper, head of product at RippleX, articulated the goal clearly. “Our job is to make XRP and RLUSD first-class options wherever developers are building,” she said. One of these options meets the criteria for every type of payment, while the other does not.

A single payment can be processed using either option. An agent calls an API, makes a payment, receives the data, and the entire process concludes in three to five seconds for less than a cent. Both XRP and RLUSD can handle individual payments, as can other tokens issued on the ledger.

However, a session is more complex. In a session, the agent opens a payment channel and signs vouchers off-chain as it consumes the service, at a rate exceeding 100,000 per second. The blockchain does not record these transactions. Instead, the provider settles everything with two on-chain transactions, one to open the channel and another to close it. This setup allows an agent renting compute power by the second to pay without incurring fees at each second mark.

Payment channels are native to the XRP Ledger. In contrast, RLUSD is an issued token, a ledger entry created by Ripple that resides on top of the ledger rather than within its settlement system. Extending channels to issued tokens will require a future XRPL upgrade, which Ripple has not yet scheduled.

Therefore, while Ripple’s stablecoin is designed for straightforward payments, the asset it has been repositioning for years is better suited for continuous transactions.

The Integration Has No Revenue Behind It Yet

The kit is still in beta, and no merchants on Stripe’s platform have yet routed a live commercial session through it. As of September 18, XRP is trading at $1.32, up 16.97% over the past month but down 4.66% over the past week, as the market drifts lower.

Circle (NYSE:CRCL | CRCL Price Prediction) made competitive positioning more challenging the day before Ripple’s announcement, launching Arc, a blockchain designed for payments. By opting to develop its own settlement layer rather than joining Ripple’s, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer has highlighted the competitive landscape of agent payments.

For Ripple to generate revenue, three groups need to take action. Developers must choose XRP Ledger wallets for MPP, merchants on Stripe must accept payment sessions, and Ripple must implement the upgrade that allows RLUSD to handle streaming transactions. Ripple controls only the third element, and it has given that one no date.

Does This Change Anything for XRP Holders? XRP gained a job it can do and no other asset on its own ledger can, which is new for a coin that has been called a payments asset for a decade while trading almost entirely on regulatory headlines. Streaming micropayments between machines is exactly where a fast native asset with settlement finality beats a token that has to be issued and redeemed.

The integration gives holders no revenue, and it gives RLUSD no seat at the same table until the ledger upgrade arrives. A named merchant routing a live session through MPP on the XRP Ledger would make this commercial, and a date on the public roadmap for payment channels around issued tokens would end the situation where Ripple’s payments stablecoin cannot do the payments Ripple just wired to Stripe.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Secured by the institutions that run the world’s financial infrastructure, Arc goes live with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders on day one, offering a new era in blockchain networks, and built for the Agentic Economic Era

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), one of the world's leading internet financial platform companies, today announced the public mainnet launch of Arc, an open Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for financial markets, real-time money movement, and agentic economic activity. Arc launches with native integration into Circle’s full-stack platform (including USDC, the world's largest regulated digital dollar, with more than $74 billion in circulation); a founding validator cohort drawn from the institutions that run global finance; more than 100 applications; and more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders spanning global banks, asset managers, payment networks, exchanges, custodians, DeFi protocols, wallets, and AI platforms live on day one.

"Arc is the single most significant launch in Circle's history since USDC" -- Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle

Share “Arc is the single most significant launch in Circle's history since USDC itself, and it is the embodiment of the premise we have operated on for thirteen years: money should work the way the internet works,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle. “USDC was step one. Arc is the network built for what comes next. The agentic economy and the onchain economy are not two different revolutions; they are the same economy seen from two sides, and both need infrastructure that never closes, settles in under a second, and is trusted by the institutions that anchor the global financial system. Today we are switching on something the world has never had before: an open, neutral, always-on economic operating system for the internet, secured by some of the most important financial institutions on Earth, and built for a world where both people and machines transact.”

AN ECONOMIC OPERATING SYSTEM, NOT JUST A BLOCKCHAIN

Six design choices set Arc apart and power onchain finance across payments, FX, trading, lending, markets, and asset issuance:

Gas in dollars. Fees are paid in USDC, with no volatile native token required. Sub-second finality. Deterministic, instant settlement. Final means final. Opt-in privacy. Confidential transactions and balances with view keys; in development for network-wide release. Issuers and interoperability. A home for USDC, EURC, and tokenized real-world assets, with Circle StableFX providing 24/7 cross-currency settlement. Agentic economic activity. The first blockchain designed from genesis for AI agents as economic actors. Institutional security. Post-quantum signatures supported today and deterministic consensus built to financial market standards. Money without borders. Circle StableFX, enables 24/7 programmable FX trading with near-instant, low-cost settlement. Local stablecoins that are active or onboarding to StableFX include: USDC, EURC, AUDD, AUDF, BRLA, CADD, CHFAU, EURAU, GBPA, JPYC, KRW1, MXNB, QCAD, SEKAU, TRYB, wARS, wBRL, wCLP, wCOP, wMXN, wPEN, and ZARU. And now Circle Payments Network is integrated natively into Arc, moving money across borders for a fraction of a cent and settling in near real time.

Markets that never close. Aero, fomo, and Uniswap anchor Arc's day one trading infrastructure. Circle's USYC (a tokenized money market fund), BUIDL (a tokenized treasury fund tokenized by Securitize), private credit funds, and cirBTC give these markets high-quality, liquid, productive assets to trade, lend, and post as collateral.

Institutional trust meets open innovation. Arc's opt-in privacy design, currently in development for network-wide release, provides enterprises with the confidentiality their businesses require and the auditability compliance teams look for, together on one network. Combined with a permissioned validator set and the regulatory clarity of the GENIUS Act, this enables banks, asset managers, and enterprises to use a public blockchain for treasury, trading, and confidential payments.

“As digital assets infrastructure matures, we expect to see certain networks increasingly designed around the needs of specific markets and use cases. Purpose-built blockchains can help accelerate adoption of digital asset use cases, and Arc appears clearly well positioned to serve stablecoin and payment use cases at scale,” said Robbie Mitchnick, Global Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock.

BUILT FOR AGENTS AS ECONOMIC ACTORS

Agents are already performing economic tasks with Circle's open, programmable payments products, including executing trades, managing payments, routing liquidity, and executing contracts on behalf of people and businesses. USDC accounts for 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume. Since Circle Agent Stack launched in May 2026, the overwhelming majority of agent-to-agent payments settling over the x402 standard have settled in USDC. Arc is the first blockchain designed from genesis for this new class of participant.

Circle Agent Stack gives developers and agents policy-controlled Agent Wallets, Nanopayments powered by Circle Gateway, and an emerging Agent Marketplace. Arc Portal lets people fund agent wallets, set spend limits, and delegate onchain tasks with visibility and control. AgentVM is being designed so that agents can work with sensitive data in a protected environment while Arc provides an immutable record that lets applications verify where each result came from without exposing the underlying data. SUPPORTED BY THE INSTITUTIONS THAT RUN GLOBAL FINANCE

Along with Circle, Arc will have a phased rollout from the founding validator cohort that includes BlackRock, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa, and Worldpay (now Global Payments). The institutions that clear the world’s securities, run its payment rails, and manage its capital are not simply connecting to Arc; they will participate in the operation of the network itself, securing a public blockchain built to meet institutional needs.

“ICE’s institutional customers are increasingly looking for ways to operate seamlessly across traditional and digital markets. Arc's native capabilities, including predictable fees and instant finality, address real friction points these customers raised,” said Michael Blaugrund, VP, Strategic Initiatives at ICE. “As a founding validator, ICE is applying our experience securing critical market infrastructure in support of Arc itself, reflecting our clients’ emerging demand for tokenized finance.”

“Onchain finance and the agentic economy are areas of intensive focus for SBI Group as well. Our work with Circle already spans a range of initiatives: in March 2025, SBI VC Trade became the first and only company in Japan to distribute USDC,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBI Holdings. “With Arc, we will not simply be a user of the network: as a founding validator, we will contribute to its operation and governance. SBI Group has also set out SBI APAC Digital Economic Zone initiative, which endeavors to build the next generation onchain financial infrastructure and contribute to the development of the APAC region. Leveraging both USDC and JPYSC – a trust-type yen-pegged stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust – we look forward to deepening our collaboration with Circle in this area.”

Around the validator core, more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders are already live on or exploring Arc's private mainnet ahead of today's public launch, including:

Global banks: BNY, BTG Pactual, HSBC, Lead Bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, and State Street have access to a public blockchain designed to help meet bank regulatory demands, including a permissioned validator model and defined governance perimeter. Asset managers and real-world asset (RWA) issuers: Bitwise, BlackRock, Dinari, Janus Henderson, New York Life Investment Management in partnership with Centrifuge, Maple, Matrixdock, ProShares, and xStocks by Payward are working to bring tokenized financial products onchain. Global payments firms: Digital Garage, Global Payments, JCB, Mastercard, MoneyGram, Thunes, and Visa will be enabling internet-scale settlement with stablecoins and building always-on and AI-powered global payments. Digital asset exchanges: Binance, Bitso, Bitvavo, Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, Kraken, KuCoin, MEXC, OKX, OSL, Upbit, and Wenia give users and institutions familiar, seamless access into Arc. Custody providers: Anchorage, BitGo, Ceffu, Copper, Fireblocks, and Zodia Custody deliver secure, institutional-grade custody for digital assets on Arc. Onchain trading and liquidity protocols: 1inch, Aero, Bankr, Dinari, Doppler, edgeX, Extended, fomo, Hibachi, LI.FI, o1.exchange, pools.trade, Pump.fun, Robinhood, and Uniswap expand access across spot trading, structured products, perpetuals, and crosschain execution in markets that never close. Borrow, lend, and earn: Aave and Morpho anchor Arc's onchain credit markets at launch, with Bitwise, Cumberland, Dialectic, Galaxy, Gauntlet, Keyrock, and Steakhouse Financial supporting the ecosystem in different capacities including through curated vault strategies, risk oversight, and the supply of USDC and EURC for borrowing and lending. Digital wallets: Binance Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Gate Web3, Kucoin Web3, Ledger, MetaMask, OKX Wallet, Phantom, Rainbow, and Trust Wallet put Arc’s markets within reach of hundreds of millions of existing users from day one. Ecosystem infrastructure and tooling: Alchemy, BCW, Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Figment, Kaleido, and Quicknode power the developer and infrastructure layer supporting builders on Arc. Building the agentic economy and the infrastructure to support it: Alethieum, Architect, Arrays, BlockRun, Goldsky, Kite AI, Ornn, Orthogonal, and Virtuals. “Aave has worked with Circle for years, growing USDC and EURC liquidity into billions of dollars. We're doubling down on the Circle ecosystem with a new Aave V4 market on Arc, bringing DeFi’s most trusted credit infrastructure to a network purpose-built to bring real-world finance onchain,” said Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave Labs.

“Arc brings together the speed, stablecoin-native infrastructure, and institutional participation needed to expand onchain credit to a much broader market. We’re excited for Morpho to serve as a credit layer on Arc, bringing open, composable, and capital-efficient lending markets to the network from the start,” said Merlin Egalite, Co-Founder of Morpho.

Arc's global developer community includes more than 75,000 active Arc House members and 10,000 Architect ambassadors, who have built more than 1,200 projects on Arc. Its testnet processed more than 700 million transactions in under a year, and Arc is fully EVM-compatible, so existing Solidity contracts and developer tools work on day one.

With mainnet, Circle is releasing two new tools for builders to create stablecoin-native applications without starting from scratch:

Arc Studio is an onchain coding agent that takes ideas to implementation faster, generating an application complete with smart contracts, application logic, and deployment-ready code for the network. Arc App Kits is a unified SDK for core onchain fund flows, letting developers add payments, swaps, onramps, and yield in a few lines of code. Together with Arc Portal, users, builders, and enterprises have three access points into Arc.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Mainnet is the start of a roadmap centered on proof of stake, privacy, and scalability.

Network Sectors. Purpose-built environments for different classes of financial activity: a Privacy Sector for opt-in confidential transactions, a Payment Sector targeting low cost payments at more than 100,000 transactions per second, and an Agent Sector for verifiable agent identity and auditable records. Proof of stake and the ARC token. Circle completed the genesis mint of ARC token this week in the U.S., creating the full initial supply of 10 billion tokens — making Circle the first publicly traded company to mint a network token for a new layer-one blockchain. ARC is designed to serve as a digital commodity intended to act as the native coordination mechanism for security, utility, and governance on Arc, with network fees remaining payable in USDC. This initial mint is not a commitment to publicly launch ARC, but an important technical milestone in the Arc roadmap as the network explores a future transition from Proof of Authority toward Proof of Stake in 2027. Post-quantum resilience. Arc supports post-quantum signatures today, with broader post-quantum protections in development. To learn more, read the blog here.

Join the Arc mainnet launch event streaming live at 2 pm ET today at @arc on X and visit Arc Portal at https://portal.arc.io/ to get started.

About Circle Internet Group (Circle)

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is one of the world's leading internet financial platform companies, building the foundation of a more open, global economy through programmable blockchain infrastructure, digital assets, and payment applications. Circle's platform includes the world's largest stablecoin network anchored by USDC, Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain designed to become the Economic OS for the internet. Enterprises, financial institutions, and developers use Circle to power trusted, internet-scale financial innovation. Learn more at circle.com and at arc.io.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our future operating results and financial position; our plans with respect to the anticipated future expenses and investments; expectations relating to certain of our key financial and operating metrics; our business strategy and plans; expectations relating to legal and regulatory proceedings; expectations relating to our industry, the regulatory environment, market conditions, trends and growth; expectations relating to customer behaviors and preferences; our market position; potential market opportunities; and our objectives for future operations. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “target,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations, assumptions, and projections based on information available at the time the statements were made. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. For a detailed discussion of the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking statements, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 filed with the SEC on March 9, 2026 as well as in other filings we may make with the SEC from time to time. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons if actual results differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.

Disclaimers:

Arc is an open L1 blockchain launched by Arc Network Services LLC (“Arc LLC”) and operated by a permissioned validator set. Arc LLC provides software services only and does not offer regulated financial or advisory services. Arc has not been reviewed or approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services or any other regulatory authority.

The Arc network is provided “as is” and “as available.” Use of Arc involves inherent risks associated with blockchain technology, including smart contract vulnerabilities, network disruptions, and the absence of recourse for transaction errors or losses. The ability to transact on Arc depends on the ability to obtain and use USDC to pay gas fees. Neither Arc LLC nor any permissioned validator is responsible for the content, accuracy, legality, or functionality of third-party applications, protocols, or services built on or integrated with Arc. You are solely responsible for features or services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws.

All Arc features may be modified, delayed, or cancelled at any time without notice. Nothing herein constitutes a commitment, warranty, guarantee or legal, regulatory, tax, or investment advice.

More News From Circle Internet Group, Inc.

The Fed balancing several inflation woes and a full job market sets up an interesting dynamic for the Fed's interest rate decision Wednesday, says Jessica Inskip (@jessicainskip). She explains how the market trajectory plays into Tuesday's Big 3.

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has been studiously buying the dip with companies that touch crypto, gobbling up millions of dollars worth of Circle Internet Group (CRCL -3.32%), Coinbase Global (COIN -2.36%), and Robinhood Markets (HOOD -1.76%). As of Sept. 8, those three were weighted in Wood's ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK -1.77%) at 6%, 4.6%, and 4.3%, respectively, of a $6.5 billion fund.

Because these three make up such a large share of her portfolio, investors should have them on their radar, even if they might not be the right kind of investment for them to buy right now.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

1. Circle is a bet on interest rates and stablecoins Circle issues USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, with $74 billion in circulation.

Critically, USDC is backed by reserves of short-term Treasury bills and other interest-bearing cash equivalent assets. As the issuer, Circle captures the interest payments earned from those reserves. In Q2, its reserve income was $668 million, with an average reserve return of 3.5%.

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That yield isn't something written in stone. The Federal Reserve's rate decisions determine short-term yields; cuts to the Fed's benchmark rate shrink Circle's reserve income, while hikes increase it.

Cathie Wood is buying the stock anyway. Her fund invested $16.3 million in Circle on March 24, even as it fell, with another purchase of $13.9 million in mid-July, and yet another $3.4 million invested on Aug. 31.

2. Coinbase is working to diversify Today, Coinbase operates the largest U.S. crypto exchange, but it aspires to do more than connect investors to spot purchasing.

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Its subscription and services revenue reached $555 million in the second quarter of this year, and 88% of its net revenue came from something other than Bitcoin spot trading. A big slice of its revenue now is interest payments on the USDC that's parked at Coinbase by its users. It also now has a platform for trading financial derivatives, like perpetual futures contracts, which could help boost its top line.

Ark Invest bought about $8 million of Coinbase shares on Aug. 2, right after a disappointing quarter sent the price lower, and then bought more again on Aug. 6. The company will not have the crypto market to itself, but its large user base and favorable positioning with regulators will make it a core part of the industry in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

3. Robinhood now counts as a crypto investment Robinhood is once again expanding into crypto with its launch of a new blockchain in July, though it's still a tertiary line of business for the company.

In Q2, the online brokerage platform reported record revenue of $1.3 billion, up 32% from a year prior, though its crypto revenue fell by 38% to $100 million. The transaction fees its new chain is bringing in could help its crypto segment grow a bit more. In August, users paid $6.6 million in chain fees for transacting on the network, up from $3.6 million the prior month.

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But Robinhood has covered the transactions costs made in its own wallet since launch, and that 90-day subsidy expires Sept. 29. It remains to be seen how the chain performs once that subsidy ends; it could see a moderate drop in activity, reducing the fees it harvests.

Cathie Wood had cut Ark's stake in Robinhood in July 2026, then, on Sept. 3, she bought a bit more, perhaps as a result of the rapid success of the Robinhood Chain.

Assuming Robinhood can build out its blockchain with the lessons it learned from building its highly successful retail investing platform, the stock could do quite well from here.

Circle Internet Group (CRCL) remains a Strong Buy despite a recent 10% stock decline and sector underperformance. CRCL leads the stablecoin revolution, with USDC growth continuing to support the bullish investment thesis. The stock trades at a 64x 15-month forward P/E, over 2.5x the sector median, reflecting premium pricing and short-term valuation risk.

Key Takeaways CRCL gained 63.1% in a month as earnings beat estimates and platform economics improved.Circle raised 2026 other-revenue and RLDC margin guidance as its platform mix strengthened.CRCL faces rate sensitivity and softer crypto activity as Arc and CPN launches shape momentum. Shares of Circle Internet Group, Inc. (CRCL - Free Report) have gained 63.1% in the past month, putting the focus on whether operating progress can support the move. The latest quarter offered evidence of improving platform economics, but the stock still carries meaningful rate and crypto-market exposure.

Near-term momentum now rests on a mix of earnings execution, higher-margin platform activity and upcoming product launches. Those positives need to outweigh valuation concerns and the volatility embedded in Circle’s reserve-income model.

CRCL’s Earnings Beat Adds Fundamental SupportSecond-quarter 2026 total revenues and reserve income increased 7% year over year to $701 million. Earnings of 18 cents per share topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12.5%, while adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $143 million.

Revenue less distribution costs, or RLDC, increased 15% to $289 million. The RLDC margin expanded to 41.2% from 38.2% a year earlier, showing that better mix and platform economics helped offset lower reserve yields.

Circle Raises Guidance as Platform Mix ImprovesCircle raised 2026 other-revenue guidance to $310-$330 million from $150-$170 million and lifted RLDC margin guidance to 41.7-43.7% from 38-40%. About $180 million of expected 2026 Arc token presale revenues are included in the revised outlook and remain milestone-based.

USDC held on Circle’s platform reached $12.4 billion at quarter-end, up 106% year over year. Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN - Free Report) is an important ecosystem reference point, with its second-quarter update showing average USDC held in Coinbase products reached an all-time high of $20 billion.

CRCL’s Arc and CPN Catalysts Add OptionalityArc Mainnet is scheduled to launch Sept. 16, 2026. The network had more than 100 private mainnet partners and validators, while its testnet processed 502 million cumulative transactions across 2.8 million transacting wallets through June 30. Institutional validators and integrations are intended to extend Arc into tokenized-asset settlement and other capital-market workflows.

Circle Payments Network (CPN) annualized total payment volume reached about $23 billion as of July 31, up from $14.7 billion at second-quarter end. The network had 175 enrolled financial institutions across 58 countries. Circle expects to begin monetizing CPN in the second half of 2026.

Circle Still Faces Rate and Crypto SensitivityReserve income represented 95.2% of second-quarter revenues, leaving results sensitive to short-term interest rates. The reserve return rate fell to 3.48% from 4.14% a year earlier, meaning circulation growth must continue to offset pressure from lower yields.

Crypto-linked activity also remains uneven. Quarter-end USDC circulation declined to $73.3 billion from $77 billion sequentially, while onchain transaction volume fell to $14.8 trillion from $21.5 trillion. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL - Free Report) , which offers the PYUSD stablecoin, also illustrates the expanding competitive field for digital-dollar payment use cases.

CRCL’s Momentum Signals Stay Strong but MixedThe 63.1% monthly rally is supported by favorable trading momentum and improving platform metrics, but the operating picture is not uniformly bullish. Rate exposure, softer sequential crypto activity and execution around Arc and CPN remain important checks on further gains.

CRCL currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Its Momentum Score of A and Growth Score of B point to favorable momentum and growth characteristics, while the Value Score of F and VGM Score of C make the profile more mixed. The combination supports a measured view after the recent surge rather than a clear-cut directional call. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Key Takeaways Circle holds a near-monopoly in the U.S. stablecoin market.USDC is a primary currency for agentic AI micropayments.Wall Street expects triple-digit EPS growth in 2026. Circle Internet Group Company OverviewZacks Rank #3 (Hold) company Circle Internet Group ((CRCL - Free Report) ) is the largest stablecoin issuer in the United States. Stablecoins are digital currencies that maintain a stable value by being pegged to traditional fiat currency. Circle offers its clients two main stablecoins: USDC (pegged to the U.S. Dollar) and EURC (pegged to the Euro). Additionally, Circle also issues USYC, a tokenized money market fund. In addition to its primary stablecoin business, Circle also offers developer tools and APIs (like smart contracts or programmable wallets) and a blockchain (which provides enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure).

Circle Group: A Near Monopoly in the U.S. Stablecoin BusinessThe toughest part about entering the stablecoin business is cutting through regulatory red tape. Circle has a massive advantage in this regard and has prioritized U.S. and global regulatory alignment. Earlier this year, the GENIUS Act provided regulatory clarity by establishing the first comprehensive regulatory guidelines for stablecoins in the U.S. Last week, Circle shares surged more than 15% after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted the company approval to operate as a bank, making Circle the first stablecoin issuer to earn such a designation.

The Benefit of StablecoinsStablecoins such as USDC are superior to traditional fiat currency in several ways:

·       Speed and Cost: Unlike traditional wire transfers, stablecoin transactions settle within seconds and cost a fraction of the price.

·       Inflation Safe Haven: Citizens in countries like Turkey and Argentina suffer from hyperinflation. Instead of watching their fiat value dwindle, these citizens can preserve wealth in stablecoins.

·       Smart Contracts: Unlike fiat, stablecoins are programmable via smart contracts to automate financial agreements.

·       AI Micropayments: Stablecoins are the primary payment method for AI agents. Rather than being charged a fixed credit card fee, agentic AI systems can use stablecoins to make micropayments, often for under a penny.

Circle Group Swings to ProfitCircle is expected to swing back to profitability in 2026. Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest that the company will grow EPS 338.64% in 2026 and 41.79% in 2027.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Meanwhile, Circle has beaten Wall Street expectations lately. Over the past four quarters, Circle has beaten Wall Street estimates by an average of 114.79%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Circle: A Beneficiary of Exploding DebtWith the U.S. debt now north of $40 trillion, U.S. Treasury bill demand is critical. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly emphasized the importance of stablecoins as a fresh source of demand for T-bills.

Circle Retakes 200-day MALast month, Circle shares retook the 200-day moving average, signaling a bullish trend change.

Image Source: TradingView

Bottom Line

With a historic banking approval, robust compliance infrastructure, and expanding utility across AI micropayments and U.S. Treasury markets, Circle is positioned to dominate the stablecoin market.

CEA Industries (NASDAQ:CEAD – Get Free Report) and Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership 21.6% of CEA Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of CEA Industries shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.8% of Circle Internet Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability This table compares CEA Industries and Circle Internet Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets CEA Industries -118.08% -27.79% -24.75% Circle Internet Group 15.53% 13.58% 0.58% Risk & Volatility CEA Industries has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Circle Internet Group has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Valuation and Earnings This table compares CEA Industries and Circle Internet Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio CEA Industries $3.28 million 0.75 -$2.91 million ($4.23) -0.73 Circle Internet Group $2.75 billion 8.27 -$69.51 million $1.46 61.27 CEA Industries has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Circle Internet Group. CEA Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Circle Internet Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for CEA Industries and Circle Internet Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score CEA Industries 0 0 0 0 0.00 Circle Internet Group 3 13 10 1 2.33 Circle Internet Group has a consensus price target of $99.35, indicating a potential upside of 11.07%. Given Circle Internet Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Circle Internet Group is more favorable than CEA Industries.

Summary Circle Internet Group beats CEA Industries on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CEA Industries (Get Free Report)

CEA Industries Inc. provides environmental control, and other technologies and services to the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry worldwide. It offers floor plans and architectural design for cultivation facilities; licensed mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services for commercial scale environmental control systems that are specific to cultivation facilities; and process cooling systems and other climate control systems. The company also provides air handling equipment and systems; LED lighting; benching and racking solutions for indoor cultivation; automation and control devices, systems, and technologies for environmental, lighting, and climate control applications; and preventive maintenance services for CEA facilities. It serves commercial, as well as state- and provincial-regulated CEA growers. The company was formerly known as Surna Inc. and changed its name to CEA Industries Inc. in November 2021. CEA Industries Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.

(Get Free Report)

Founded in 2013, Circle’s mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. We intend to connect the world more deeply by building a new global economic system on the foundation of the internet, and to facilitate the creation of a world where everyone, everywhere can share value as easily as we can today share information, content, and communications. Since inception, we have relentlessly pursued our mission and vision, building fundamental technology for the internet financial system. We have forged paths toward mainstream acceptance through persistent and active engagement with policymakers and regulators globally, and have seen institutional and consumer knowledge and acceptance of internet-native financial assets approach critical mass. Large and influential players in the incumbent financial services system are increasingly embracing digital assets broadly and stablecoins specifically. Circle’s innovative products reach tens of millions of end-users, power thousands of businesses, and, as of March 31, 2025, USDC has been used for more than $25 trillion in onchain transactions. While we have made strong progress in our pursuit of our mission and vision over the past decade, we believe the internet financial system is in its infancy with decades of growth and innovation ahead. Our principal executive office is located in New York, NY.

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In the crypto market, all eyes are now on what's happening in Washington, D.C. A comprehensive piece of new crypto legislation, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, was supposed to be signed into law this year before Congressional lawmakers headed off for their long summer recess.

That didn't happen, so now the crypto industry is doing everything it can to ensure that it passes later this year. That included a meeting of top crypto executives at the White House, and a full-throated endorsement of the Clarity Act by President Donald Trump.

As a result, optimism is now building for passage of the legislation, and the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has suddenly flipped into "extreme greed" territory. With that in mind, the following three crypto stocks need to be on your investment radar.

Coinbase First up is Coinbase Global (COIN -6.33%), which stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Clarity Act. For good reason, shares of Coinbase immediately shot up by 8% in the aftermath of the White House meeting.

Image source: Getty Images.

The Clarity Act will benefit Coinbase in two different ways. It will make it easier for Coinbase to roll out new trading products tied to digital assets. Coinbase has already moved into perpetual futures and prediction market contracts, as it races to become an exchange for a wide array of digital assets. So it's absolutely vital that Coinbase gets the green light to move ahead with other product launches, including new financial derivatives and new tokenized assets.

Coinbase will also benefit because it is helping to build out the back-end infrastructure for the crypto market. So any piece of legislation that increases the pie for the entire crypto industry is going to be a big win for Coinbase as well. Coinbase has a proprietary blockchain called Base, which has been key to the company's growth in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Circle Another top crypto stock is Circle Internet Group (CRCL -7.53%). This company is the issuer of the popular USDC (USDC +0.00%) stablecoin, and is leading the push to standardize the world of stablecoin finance.

Importantly, the Clarity Act includes important provisions on stablecoins, including rules on how crypto staking rewards can be paid out. This is a contentious issue, given that the traditional banking industry very much views stablecoins as a threat. If crypto companies can pay out relatively high staking rewards to stablecoin owners, money might begin to flow out of traditional banking deposits and into crypto.

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So, if the Clarity Act facilitates payment of staking rewards, it could be very good news for Circle. The more USDC that is in circulation, the more money that Circle makes. For good reason, then, shares of Circle advanced by 10% on the basis of newfound positive sentiment around the Clarity Act.

Robinhood Finally, there's Robinhood Markets (HOOD -5.01%). Many investors may think of Robinhood primarily as a platform for trading equities, but crypto is now big business, as are prediction markets.

Robinhood is also building out its own blockchain-powered infrastructure for faster, cheaper, and more efficient asset trading. This includes the launch of a brand-new blockchain, known as Robinhood Chain, that has been optimized for trading tokenized assets -- cryptos that represent the ownership of things like stocks, bonds, real estate, and more.

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However, tokenized assets are still very much in a gray area with regulators. So, retail trading platforms stand to benefit from any clarity the Clarity Act can provide, especially if regulators decide these digital assets fall under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), not the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

What could possibly go wrong? Keep in mind: Just because the Clarity Act has the support of the White House and the crypto industry does not mean that it is guaranteed to pass in 2026. The banking industry is strenuously opposed to some terms of the proposed legislation, and Congressional Democrats are saying they won't pass the legislation if it doesn't include strong ethics provisions to keep the Trump family from profiting on its many crypto ventures.

Add in the fact that midterm elections are coming up, and there's remarkably little time for Congress to act in 2026. Right now, the odds of passing the Clarity Act by Jan. 1, 2027 are about 20% on online prediction markets.

Still, if you're willing to accept the risks, then it could be worth taking a closer look at Coinbase, Circle, and Robinhood. If the Clarity Act passes, all three are likely to soar.