Key takeaways Binance paid $100 million for Circle stock and cannot sell it for up to two years. Circle will pay Binance monthly fees tied to USDC balances under a new five-year agreement. Bi
Binance has invested $100 million in Circle Internet Group, buying 1,237,011 Class A shares at $80.84 each in a private placement announced on September 22. The purchase comes with a five-year commercial agreement under which Circle pays the exchange to promote USDC, mainly in emerging markets. Four years after it pushed USDC off its platform, the world’s largest crypto exchange is now a paid distributor and a shareholder of the company that issues it.
The Binance Circle investment came at a 5% discount to Circle’s pre-closing market price. Circle’s SEC filing shows Binance agreed not to sell, transfer, pledge or hedge the shares for up to two years, subject to exceptions, while keeping its voting rights. At $80.84, Binance paid about 161% more per share than IPO investors did in June 2025, when Circle priced its offering at $31.
The commercial terms carry more weight. The new agreement replaces arrangements from November 2024 and August 2025, and Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee based on USDC held through Circle’s Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure. Binance promotes and integrates the stablecoin in return. It now earns from USDC growth twice.
Investment $100M Private placement Price per share $80.84 5% discount, 1,237,011 shares Lock-up 2 years Voting rights retained USDC agreement 5 years Monthly fees on USDC balancesIn September 2022, Binance began automatically converting user balances in USDC, USDP and TUSD into BUSD, the Paxos-issued token carrying its brand. That strategy collapsed in February 2023, when Paxos stopped minting BUSD after action by the New York Department of Financial Services.
The turn back to USDC came with a partnership announced in December 2024. Circle’s IPO prospectus later disclosed the price: a $60.25 million upfront fee to Binance, monthly incentives linked to USDC balances, and a commitment from Binance, subject to exceptions, to keep $3 billion of USDC in its treasury. Binance gave up running its own dollar token and left reserve management, licensing and banking relationships to Circle.
Binance and USDC, 2022-2026 Sep 2022 USDC balances auto-converted into BUSD Feb 2023 Paxos halts new BUSD issuance Dec 2024 First Circle deal, $60.25M upfront fee Aug 2025 Partnership expanded Sep 2026 $100M equity stake and five-year agreementKaiko data cited by CoinDesk shows monthly USDC trading volume on Binance sat between $20 billion and $40 billion before the Circle partnership and has since held above $80 billion. In 2026 the exchange has processed $5 billion to $10 billion in USDC spot volume a day, while most rival exchanges handle under $500 million. Kaiko research head Anastasia Melachrinos said competitors have seen no similar growth, which puts Binance itself behind most of the jump.
Circle keeps the interest earned on the Treasuries and cash backing USDC. In Q2 2026, reserve income reached $668 million out of $701 million in total revenue and reserve income, roughly 95%. The company’s Q2 reserve return rate fell 66 basis points year over year while average circulation rose 25%, and in 2025 lower yields removed about $442 million even as higher balances added $1.4 billion.
More USDC is the only offset Circle controls, and it gets expensive. Distribution, transaction and other costs reached $412 million in Q2, and Coinbase alone received $324.6 million. Circle’s filings warn that adding distributors could push these costs higher.
From $701M to $48M: Circle’s Q2 2026 Revenue and reserve income $701M $668M of it from reserve interest Distribution and other costs $412M About 59% of the top line Paid to Coinbase $324.6M Close to 80% of distribution costs Adjusted EBITDA $143M About 20% of the top line Net income $48M Under 7 cents per dollar earned Source: Circle Q2 2026 results and SEC filingsCoinbase reported a record $20 billion in average USDC held across its products in Q2, more than 30% of circulation. Binance, with more than 300 million users in over 100 countries, gives Circle a second channel weighted outside the United States. With 1.237 million shares on its books, Binance also has a reason to steer users toward USDC that a simple listing never created.
On September 25, stablecoin supply stood near $304.8 billion, with USDT at $183.8 billion and USDC at $75.3 billion, according to Stablecoin Beat. Emerging markets, the focus of the new deal, are where Tether is strongest and where stablecoins often replace a bank account.
$304.8B total supply USDT: $183.8B (~60%) USDC: $75.3B (~25%) Others: ~$45.7B (~15%) Data as of Sept. 25, 2026. Source: Stablecoin BeatMartins Benkitis, CEO of market maker Gravity Team, told CoinDesk both companies have a clear incentive to grow USDC, though Tether keeps deep local liquidity and entrenched user habits in those regions. Traders and OTC desks hold the token their counterparties already accept. Few platforms can shift that behavior at scale, and Binance is one of them.
Circle’s Q4 2026 results, due in early 2027, will cover the first full quarter under the new Binance terms. The ratio to watch is distribution costs against reserve income. Key provisions of the GENIUS Act take effect on January 18, 2027, after which payment stablecoins generally cannot be issued in the U.S. without a federal or state licence. Circle already holds OCC approval for Circle National Trust along with licences in the EU, UK and Singapore.
The Binance stake is one piece of a wider build-out. On September 16, Circle launched the mainnet of Arc, its own blockchain for payments, and two weeks earlier it agreed to acquire Tazapay, a Singapore payments firm processing more than $25 billion a year, in a deal expected to close in 2027. Binance’s lock-up runs to roughly September 2028, so the exchange will hold its shares through both milestones.
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