Circle sells Binance $100M in discounted CRCL shares as the pair expand their USDC deal.
Binance is now a Circle shareholder. The exchange scooped up $100M worth of CRCL stock via private placement, per a Tuesday SEC filing, and inked a fresh 5-year deal to push USDC to its users, with a big focus on emerging markets.
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What’s the Scoop?
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The stake: Binance got roughly 1.24M Class A shares at $80.84 apiece, a 5% haircut to CRCL’s pre-closing price. The sale closed Sept. 17th. Binance is locked in for up to two years, with no selling or hedging allowed, but it can still vote its shares.
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Payouts: Circle will pay Binance a monthly fee pegged to a cut of the USDC that users park in wallets running on Circle’s Modular Smart Contract Wallet tech. It’s the third USDC tie-up between the two since late 2024, superseding both earlier deals, and both companies have escape hatches if certain triggers hit.
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Big picture: Paying distributors to hold USDC is standard stablecoin strategy now. Adding equity to the mix gives Binance a stake in Circle’s whole stack, Arc included, not just the token. The news lands days after Circle took its Arc L1 live on mainnet, and Binance co-CEO Richard Teng namechecked Arc in announcing the investment.
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