Circle shares jump as earnings beat offsets revenue miss, Arc blockchain gains Wall Street backing

Circle (CRCL) shares rose about 10% in premarket trading Wednesday after the stablecoin issuer reported second-quarter earnings that topped profit expectations, even as revenue came in slightly below Wall Street forecasts.

The company posted adjusted earnings of 18 cents a share, beating analysts' consensus estimate of 16 cents, while revenue and reserve income rose 7% from a year earlier to $701 million, missing expectations of $712 million. Net income from continuing operations reached $48 million, topping analysts' estimates of $43 million, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 8% to $143 million.

$USDC, Circle's dollar-backed stablecoin, continued to expand. Circulation reached $73.3 billion at the end of June, up 19% from a year earlier, but down from its 2026 peak of nearly $80 billion. Onchain transaction volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion during the quarter.

"Our quarterly financial results reflect the current rate environment and a crypto market that has slowed," CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. "But the institutions using $USDC today, like BlackRock, BNY and Standard Chartered aren't piloting, they are expanding."

The earnings also offered the clearest update yet on Arc, Circle's blockchain network scheduled to launch its public mainnet on Sept. 16.

Circle said more than 100 ecosystem and institutional builders are developing on Arc. The network's founding validator set includes BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered, Galaxy, MoneyGram and other financial firms. BlackRock plans to deploy its BUIDL tokenized U.S. Treasury fund on the network, while DTCC is working on infrastructure to tokenize securities held at its depository.

These announcements show Circle's broader strategy to position Arc as infrastructure for tokenized assets and institutional payments. Global banks and asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain rails for tokenized funds, stablecoin settlement and collateral management as the tokenized asset market continues to grow.

Circle also reported continued momentum for its Circle Payments Network (CPN), which reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume over the trailing 30 days, up 76% from the previous quarter, with 175 financial institutions now participating.

The company recently obtained approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Circle National Trust, making it a stablecoin issuer with a federal trust bank charter under federal oversight.