Written by: Circle
Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News
In 2025, stablecoins will be the absolute main character in the crypto world. By the end of the year, one of the important drivers of the stablecoin wave, Circle, released its annual review report. Circle elaborated on the achievements of the past year in building a full-stack platform, presenting a journey of regulatory breakthroughs, stablecoin share growth, application implementation, and exploration of Arc infrastructure, illustrating the evolution of programmable finance into the mainstream world. The following are the core contents extracted from the report.
TL;TR
Global regulatory frameworks such as the US (GENIUS Act) and EU MiCA have been implemented, clarifying the mainstream financial positioning of fully reserved stablecoins and laying the foundation for industry scaling.
In 2025, Circle completed the construction of a full-stack platform that combines trusted digital assets (USDC, EURC, USYC), real-world applications, and the Arc blockchain, serving as the economic operating system of the internet.
Institutional commercial cooperation has broken through, covering giants such as the Intercontinental Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Finastra, and FIS, with applications spanning core areas of payments, clearing, and treasury management.
The practical value of digital assets has been realized, extending from cross-border remittances and global payroll distribution to AI smart agent payments, with the Arc blockchain public test network launched to support the next generation of finance.
Circle has always believed that the global economic infrastructure should have the speed and scale of the internet, allowing value to flow seamlessly like information. Since our inception, our mission has been to enhance global economic prosperity through frictionless value exchange, committed to building open, programmable, vertically integrated financial service technology solutions that enable trusted digital currencies and financial applications to operate natively on the internet.
In 2025, this vision becomes increasingly clear. New regulatory frameworks have been promulgated or fully implemented in the US, Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, the UAE, and other regions, clarifying that fully reserved, stable value on-chain settlement digital currencies are components of the global financial system. Against this backdrop, Circle's IPO marks a milestone in development, consolidating our long-term commitment to transparency, sound governance, and rigorous risk management.
Our strategy relies on three synergistic pillars, continuously advancing in 2025: first, fully reserved digital stablecoins (USDC, EURC, and USYC); second, an application service matrix (including Circle Payments Network, StableFX); and third, launching the Arc blockchain, integrating programmable currency with real economic activities to create neutral, institutional-grade infrastructure. Together, these form a full-stack technology platform that promotes programmable currency and on-chain transactions into the mainstream of global finance.
Our efforts aim to create tangible value: low-cost, fast remittances help families retain more income, efficient cross-border payments benefit small and micro enterprises, and programmable funds empower financial institutions to manage liquidity in real-time and explore new markets, driving the financial system towards an open and inclusive internet-native form. This annual report focuses on the four key pillars of transformation in 2025, covering regulatory milestones, digital asset growth, application service expansion, and Arc infrastructure exploration.
Regulatory Clarity: Unlocking the Potential for Industry Scaling
In 2025, breakthroughs in global regulatory frameworks across multiple jurisdictions will become a turning point for the industry. Key markets such as the US, EU, Hong Kong, and the UAE have introduced frameworks clarifying that 'full reserve, stable value, and transparent traceability' on-chain settlement digital currencies are long-term components of the financial system, reversing policy uncertainty.
Key progress in the US market. The GENIUS Act took effect in July, clarifying that fully reserved payment stablecoins are core components of modern financial infrastructure, with terms highly aligned with Circle's standards. During the same period, Circle received conditional approval from the OCC to establish the 'First National Digital Currency Bank,' which will enhance the security and regulatory transparency of USDC reserves, filling the gap between traditional finance and digital asset services.
The global regulatory collaboration landscape is becoming more integrated. In the EU market, Circle is the only mainstream issuing institution with both MiCA-compliant USDC and EURC, covering all 27 EU countries; in the Middle East, the DFSA has listed USDC/EURC as among the first compliant stablecoins, and Circle has received a full license from the Abu Dhabi FSP to expand application scenarios in the UAE.
Compliance capabilities have become a core advantage; Circle has joined the global travel rule network, deepening collaboration with the TRUST network, embedding compliance functions into products like CPN and Gateway to reduce customer onboarding costs.
Meanwhile, industry insiders have been evaluating how to integrate USDC more deeply into their products and services, while the overall positive regulatory environment for digital assets has also driven the growing demand for EURC and USYC. These developments signify a structural transformation in the financial system, viewing digital assets as scalable, mainstream, and resilient cash equivalents.
Commercial Expansion: Institutional Cooperation Penetrating Core Financial Scenarios
Clear regulation catalyzes explosive growth in institutional business in 2025, with global market infrastructure providers, FinTech companies, and exchanges collaborating with Circle to validate the value of digital assets in enhancing efficiency and reducing risks.
Top market infrastructure providers have entered the scene as a trendsetter. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in the US has announced the introduction of USDC/USYC, exploring integration into capital market trading and clearing processes; the Deutsche Börse in the EU has committed to integrating USDC/EURC across the entire process to reduce settlement risks.
FinTech giants are accelerating their integration. Finastra plans to integrate USDC settlements into its Global PAYplus platform, which processes $1 trillion in cross-border funds daily; FIS has incorporated USDC into its 'Funds Flow Hub', benefiting a vast number of bank clients; Intuit has signed a long-term strategic partnership to deploy stablecoin infrastructure covering small and micro enterprise treasury management.
Breakthroughs in cross-border payments and regional markets. In the Brazilian market, Circle has partnered with Matera to enable low-cost global payments for businesses; in the Asia-Pacific region, it is exploring optimization of cross-border collections for small and micro enterprises with LianLian Global; in Europe, a subsidiary of Bison Bank has launched USDC/EURC deposit and withdrawal services. In terms of payment card organizations, Visa has launched real-time settlements in USDC in the US, and Mastercard has expanded its services to the EMEA region.
Deepening exchange ecosystem cooperation. Binance supports USYC as collateral for derivatives, expanding the application coverage of USDC to 240 million users; Bybit, Kraken, and OKX are respectively enhancing liquidity, accelerating integration, and launching two-way exchange services. In terms of infrastructure layout, Circle acquired Interop to accelerate the advancement of Arc and CCTP; acquired Hashnote to integrate USYC into Circle's full-stack platform; collaborated with Safe to create multi-signature smart accounts; and is laying out AI smart agent payment standards.
Digital Assets: Building the Core Value Carrier of Global Finance
In 2025, the three core digital assets USDC, EURC, and USYC will achieve simultaneous scale and quality improvements, covering diverse scenarios such as payments, foreign exchange, and treasury management.
USDC: The Global Stablecoin Benchmark
By December 23, 2025, the market value of USDC has risen from $44 billion to $77 billion, an increase of 75%. On-chain coverage has expanded to 30 blockchains, with 14 new public chains including XRP Ledger. After the upgrade of the CCTP protocol, it supports cross-chain transfers across 17 chains, with a cumulative transaction volume exceeding $126 billion and over 6 million transfers.
Market liquidity has significantly improved over the past year, with Binance's BTC/USDC spot liquidity growing by 227%, and perpetual contract depth improving by over 200%. Trading metrics have been optimized, with 99% of time points having a spread of less than 1 basis point, and the slippage on $100,000 trades dropping from 42 basis points to less than 5 basis points, gradually narrowing the gap with USDT, becoming a highly credible liquidity vehicle.
EURC: Leading the EU Compliance Market
2025 is also a crucial year for EURC. The implementation of MiCA has driven explosive growth in EURC, with its market value rising from €70 million to over €300 million by December 23, an increase of 328%, maintaining its position as the top euro stablecoin.
The growth of EURC is attributed to its expansion on the World Chain. The World Chain has brought EURC to over 37 million World App users, enabling daily euro transaction buying and transferring functionalities.
The 'regulatory compliance + institutional inflow and outflow + consumer-grade distribution' model has formed a regional liquidity network that complements USDC, confirming the feasibility of regional strategies.
USYC: A Core Choice for Institutional Yield-bearing Assets
Like USDC and EURC, Circle's TMMF (Token Management Fund) USYC has also continued to grow. From November 1 to December 23, 2025, the total assets under management of USYC increased by approximately $592 million, from $948 million to $1.54 billion, becoming the second largest TMMF in the world.
USYC successfully launched on BNB Chain and Solana, leveraging high throughput and low latency characteristics to reach more institutional clients. The core value lies in 'traditional asset returns + on-chain flexible settlements,' supporting 24/7 redemption into USDC to meet institutional liquidity needs.
Applications and Services: Bridging the Last Mile of Implementation
As regulated digital assets continue to grow, the focus in 2025 will be to make these assets more applicable to real-world financial workflows. Circle's CPN (Circle Payments Network), CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol), Gateway, Circle xReserve, Mint, StableFX, Circle Wallets, and other supporting applications and services have become the links connecting digital assets with everyday financial infrastructure.
CPN: Accelerating Global Capital Flow
Addressing pain points like the T+2 to T+5 delays in traditional cross-border payments and high fees of 3%-5%, Circle launched the CPN stablecoin payment network in early 2025, providing a real-time payment coordination platform for licensed financial institutions. The core advantages of CPN include: a 'one-to-many' integration model that reduces setup costs; a programmable risk control framework that supports real-time policy implementation; and native compliance capabilities that realize 'compliance as a service'.
The CPN Console self-service interface shortens the onboarding cycle, with over 25 design partners by year-end. For example, Brazil's Alfred has achieved sub-second cross-border payments, reducing exchange rate costs by 20%; Asia-Pacific's Tazapay addresses the pain points of small and micro collections.
Liquidity and Interoperability Tools
As the use of digital assets in the real world continues to grow in 2025, Circle will continue to expand the liquidity and interoperability infrastructure needed to support this growth.
Through collaboration among Mint, Gateway, and xReserve, a multi-chain liquidity system is constructed. Mint optimizes rates and account management, introducing USDC/EURC exchanges available 24/7; Gateway supports 11 core chains, enabling real-time allocation of USDC and integrating dispersed liquidity; xReserve empowers non-native chain-issued reserve stablecoins, reducing cross-chain trust risks.
StableFX: Redefining Institutional Foreign Exchange Trading
Mint, CPN, CCTP, Gateway, and xReserve focus on payments, liquidity, and interoperability, while StableFX and Circle Partner Stablecoins address another important aspect of cross-border finance: foreign exchange.
To address the pain points of traditional foreign exchange T+1 settlement and margin prepayment, Circle launched the StableFX engine in November, combining the RFQ model with on-chain settlement to achieve real-time delivery without margin requirements. StableFX has now gone live on the Arc public test network.
Wallets and Autonomous Payments: Expanding AI Scenarios
Wallets are the way users interact with the on-chain world; this critical infrastructure brings together end-user experiences, developer workflows, and emerging smart agent use cases.
The Circle Wallet as a Service platform has launched a modular solution, reducing user barriers with Gas Station and Paymaster functions. Circle has also expanded its wallet infrastructure into a new area: autonomous machine-to-machine payments. Through collaboration with Coinbase's x402 protocol and partners like OpenMind, Circle will integrate developer-controlled wallets with x402, allowing AI agents to autonomously access payment APIs, data, computation, and content fees using USDC.
Real-World Applications: From Pilot to Scaled Implementation
The measure of real progress in 2025 will not be the breadth of Circle's product portfolio or the clearer global promotion of regulatory frameworks, but rather the achievements of developers and customers as a result. In 2025, Circle's digital asset applications transitioned from pilot projects to scaled implementations, covering scenarios such as consumer banking, cross-border remittances, and global payroll, addressing the pain points of traditional finance.
CAP Program: Alliance Ecology Driving Innovation
As of December, the CAP (Circle Alliance Program) has 1,065 members, covering banks, technology companies, and more. The core value lies in ecological synergy, with Circle providing technological support, and members innovating based on local needs: Southeast Asian members have reduced cross-border remittance times to minutes and cut fees by 50%; Latin American members have integrated agricultural supply chain finance to serve small and medium-sized farmers.
Mainstream financial channel penetration: Reaching billions of users
Circle has partnered with the Latin American digital bank Nubank to provide low-threshold USDC savings services to 127 million users in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, allowing users to exchange for value preservation without needing foreign accounts through existing apps. By integrating USDC into its platform, Nubank has begun offering tens of millions of Brazilians a convenient way to access and hold digital dollars within the Nubank application.
Cross-border payments and remittances: From T+2 to real-time
The global payment network Thunes has replaced multi-currency pre-funding models with USDC, reducing working capital occupancy by 30% and improving reconciliation efficiency by 60%, covering more emerging markets. On the other hand, the new bank based on stablecoins, Lipaworld, combines USDC with digital vouchers to provide migrants with low-cost remittance services, reducing fees by 40%-60% and cutting delivery times to minutes, addressing the issue of insufficient outlets in underdeveloped areas.
Payroll Distribution: Adapting to Remote Work
Circle, in collaboration with Rise and others, has launched a USDC payroll solution, allowing companies to pay globally through a single platform, avoiding multi-currency exchange costs, with payment times reduced from 3-5 days to real-time. Over a thousand companies have benefited, covering industries like technology and creative fields, enhancing income predictability for freelancers and reducing operational costs for businesses.
Social Responsibility: Institutionalizing Financial Inclusion
As Circle expands its commercial and institutional business landscape in 2025, it is also taking steps to formally implement its long-standing commitment to inclusive finance and enhanced financial resilience.
By establishing the Circle Foundation through the 'Donate 1%' initiative, we are funding projects such as promoting mobile payments in Africa, enabling payment access for small and micro enterprises in Southeast Asia, and financial training for immigrants in Latin America. We aim to incorporate inclusivity into infrastructure design, expanding emerging market coverage through CPN, with low-barrier APIs to reduce costs for small and micro enterprises.
Arc Blockchain: Launching the Internet Economy Operating System
In 2025, Circle launched the EVM-compatible Layer 1 public chain Arc, positioned as the 'Internet Economy Operating System,' specifically designed to support real financial activities. The acquisition of the Informal Systems team has integrated the Malachite consensus engine, featuring sub-second confirmations, high throughput, and low energy consumption characteristics.
In October, the Arc public test network was launched, attracting over 100 institutions, including global core players such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Amazon Web Services, and Coinbase. Arc's core features include sub-second finality, predictable fees denominated in USDC, and configurable privacy tools.
AI scenario exploration has shown significant results, holding hackathons to promote developer innovation, with the 'AI Disaster Relief Platform' becoming a typical example, achieving automated fund distribution through Arc and USDC, with zero-knowledge proofs ensuring compliance and transparency. As of December, the Arc Discord community has over 20,000 members, launching developer funds to support compliance components, liquidity tools, and other projects to accelerate ecosystem implementation.
Future Outlook: Co-building an Open Internet Financial System
The progress we make in 2025 is just the beginning. The world is still in the early stages of transitioning from decades-old financial infrastructure to an internet financial system. In this system, value is natively online and flows at unprecedented speeds. The clarification of key market regulatory policies, the growth and diversification of trustworthy digital assets, the expansion of applications with real-world value, and the early development momentum of blockchain infrastructure built for real-world economic activities all indicate that programmable on-chain finance will play a foundational role in the global economy.
In the future, as a neutral and trusted digital currency issuer, institutional-grade infrastructure builder, and next-generation financial application developer, we are committed to continuing to play a constructive role.
