Circle Plans Expansion Into 40 Emerging Markets as Q2 USDC Circulation Hits $73.3B

Circle plans to expand into roughly 40 emerging and developing countries across Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, CEO Jeremy Allaire told Reuters on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Circle's USDC holds about 25% of the stablecoin market compared with roughly 60% for Tether's USDT, with USDC circulation rising 19% year over year to $73.3B in Q2. To support the expansion, Circle is drawing on its $400M acquisition of payments firm Tazapay and a $100M strategic investment from Binance, alongside a federal banking charter secured in July and a pending New York trust charter pursuit ahead of the US GENIUS Act taking effect in January. As enterprise stablecoin payment partnerships expand across the sector, Reuters reported that BlackRock, Visa, and Standard Chartered have adopted Circle's Arc network while AI agents executing small machine-to-machine payments have also boosted USDC usage. "If you’re not concerned about it, then your head is in the sand, right?" — Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO, on AI security risks to financial infrastructure.