Circle Q3 Revenue Rises 17 Percent to $865 Million as ARC Presale Lifts Earnings

Circle reported third quarter 2026 total revenue and reserve income of $865 million, up 17 percent from a year earlier, and net income from continuing operations of $226 million, up 5 percent. CoinDesk reported the results on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, and said the company beat estimates on both lines.

Adjusted earnings were 84 cents a share, which CoinDesk reported as 127 percent higher than the forecast of 37 cents, and revenue beat the $778 million estimate by more than 11 percent. Cointelegraph, citing the company report, put diluted earnings per share at $0.84, up from $0.64 a year earlier and double analyst expectations of $0.42. The two reports use different earnings measures and different consensus figures, and they are kept separate here.

The ARC presale carried the quarter

A private presale of ARC, the native token of Circle's Arc blockchain, generated $182 million in revenue. Without the ARC presale, total revenue and reserve income were $683 million, down roughly 8 percent from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA rose 85 percent to $317 million. Without the ARC contribution, adjusted EBITDA was approximately $135 million, down 21 percent from $171 million a year earlier, according to Cointelegraph and the Motley Fool earnings call transcript.

On the call, Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire said: "This is not just about payments, and it is not just about digital dollars. It is about multiple compounding flywheels on one platform. Every new member, every new builder, and every new asset makes the whole platform more valuable."

USDC volume rose, reserve income fell

Onchain transaction volume for USDC rose 49 percent to $13.9 trillion in the quarter. Reserve income fell 8 percent to $657.6 million. Average USDC circulation rose 8 percent from a year earlier, but the reserve return rate fell 61 basis points to 3.5 percent. USDC ended September at $73.9 billion in circulation, and its share of the stablecoin market fell 1.83 percentage points to 27 percent.

Costs, deals and the share price

Circle cut its workforce by 5 percent in the quarter and recorded a $9.1 million restructuring charge. Quarter highlights named by the company included the public mainnet debut of Arc, live on Sept. 16, 2026, the agreed acquisition of Singapore payments network Tazapay, and a $100 million investment from Binance.

The shares did not rally on the beat. CoinDesk reported CRCL trading 1.18 percent lower at $74.33 in premarket trading, after rising 4.36 percent to $75.22 on Tuesday. Cointelegraph, citing Yahoo Finance, put the shares down 0.84 percent at $74.59 at 16:05 UTC on Nov. 4. The two snapshots were taken at different times.