Circle

Circle is a full-stack financial technology platform that connects traditional finance with onchain infrastructure through regulated stablecoins, payment networks, and developer tools. The company offers USDC (digital dollar) and EURC (digital euro) stablecoins, tokenized money market funds (USYC), and a suite of liquidity services, payment solutions, and blockchain infrastructure for enterprises and developers building internet-native financial applications.

Circle's main yield product is called USYC. This is a tokenized money market fund available to institutional investors located outside the United States.

The yield is generated by the fund's investments. It buys short-term U.S. Treasury bills and enters into reverse repurchase agreements (short-term loans that are backed by U.S. government securities).

You earn this yield automatically. The price of each USYC token gradually increases as the fund earns interest. There is no need to stake your tokens or manually claim any rewards.

The fee structure includes:

• A 0.04% fee when you subscribe (buy in).
• A 0.03% fee when you redeem (cash out).
• A 10% fee on the yield that the fund generates.

The fund is designed for constant access. You can redeem your tokens nearly instantly, up to a daily limit. Larger redemptions are processed within the same day or the next business day.

The yield flows from the interest income paid on the underlying U.S. Treasury securities. This income makes the token's price appreciate, which is how your earnings accumulate.

It's important to know that Circle's stablecoins—USDC and EURC—are a different story. They are fully-backed, stable-value assets and are not designed to generate yield for their holders.

The reserves that back USDC are held in cash, cash equivalents, and the Circle Reserve Fund (USDXX). This reserve fund is an SEC-registered government money market fund. It invests in short-dated U.S. Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreements, which do generate some income.

However, this income goes to Circle to support its operational sustainability. It is not passed on to USDC holders.

Circle is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CRCL. The company's investor relations materials and official website do not provide specific historical venture capital investors, funding rounds, or amounts from private funding stages. As a public company, ownership is distributed among institutional and retail shareholders through the public markets. The website highlights commercial partnerships with financial institutions and technology companies including Standard Chartered, BTG Pactual, Nubank, Stripe, MoneyGram, Binance, Coinbase, and others, but these are operational partnerships rather than equity investments.