USDC Issuer Circle Quietly Cuts 5% of Staff in Profitable Quarter

In brief Circle has cut about 5% of its workforce to better align its organization with its operating model and strategic priorities, it disclosed in its Q3 results. The USDC issuer booked $9.1 million in restructuring charges, mainly severance and notice-period payments, even as quarterly net income rose 5% to $226 million. Circle joins a string of crypto firms that have cut staff this year, including Coinbase, BitGo, Bitwise and the Ethereum Foundation. Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has cut about 5% of its workforce, according to its third-quarter earnings release on Wednesday.The reduction was "designed to better align our organizational structure with our operating model and strategic priorities," the company said in footnotes to its financial tables. Circle did not say how many employees were affected or which teams were cut.It recorded $9.1 million in restructuring expenses in the quarter, mostly cash payments for notice periods and severance, employee benefits and related costs. Those were partly offset by a $5.7 million reversal of stock-based compensation, as unvested shares held by departing employees were forfeited.The cuts came in a profitable quarter. Circle reported net income from continuing operations of $226 million, up 5% from a year earlier, on total revenue and reserve income of $865 million, up 17%. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 85% year-on-year to $317 million.Much of that growth came from outside Circle's core business. Other revenue rose to $207 million, including $182 million from the presale of ARC, the token for its Arc blockchain. Reserve income, the interest Circle earns on the assets backing USDC and its largest source of revenue, fell 8% to $658 million as interest rates on those reserves declined.The average amount of USDC in circulation rose 8% from a year earlier to $73.3 billion, but ended the quarter flat at $73.9 billion. USDC's share of the U.S. dollar stablecoin market slipped to 27%, according to the company.CEO Jeremy Allaire did not mention the job cuts in his comments on the results, or in a tweet on Wednesday calling Q3 "a big quarter for Circle." He said USDC carried 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume, up from 66% a year earlier, and that Circle's payments network ended the quarter at $41 billion in annualized volume, up 15-fold. "In January, the GENIUS Act takes effect and regulated digital dollars go mainstream," Allaire wrote. "Every layer of our platform is live and ready for it." Q3 was a big quarter for Circle. → USDC carried 79% of all stablecoin transaction volume, up from 66% a year ago, and $13.9T moved onchain (+49%) → A record $208B of USDC was minted and redeemed, about $2.3B every day → Arc mainnet went live, with 100+ institutions and apps… pic.twitter.com/euVfyHBUXX — Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) November 4, 2026The cuts come as Circle expands. In September, it launched the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain, with BlackRock, DTCC and Visa among its permissioned validators. Allaire said in October that Circle plans to enter about 40 emerging and developing markets, and the company has since teamed up with payments-technology firm ACI Worldwide to pilot USDC settlement on Colombia's instant-payments network.Crypto's layoff waveCircle is the latest in a string of crypto companies to cut staff this year, citing weaker markets, artificial intelligence or both.Coinbase cut 14% of its workforce in May, with CEO Brian Armstrong pointing to the crypto downturn and the company's adoption of AI. The Ethereum Foundation cut 20% of its staff in June as part of a reorganization, while custody firm BitGo cut 15% that month to focus on AI and stablecoins.Exchange Luno cut a fifth of its global staff in July, citing automation, and crypto ETF issuer Bitwise cut 14% of its staff in August.Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more. Join 72,000+ readersCreate an account to save your articles.