- Binance purchased 1,237,011 Circle Class A shares at $80.84 apiece for $100 million in a private placement that closed September 17, per an 8-K filed with the SEC.
- The equity sale closed concurrently with a five-year deal in which Circle pays Binance a monthly incentive fee set as a percentage of the USDC held through Circle's Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure, and Binance promotes USDC on its platform.
- The arrangement replaces agreements from November 2024 and August 2025, and either party holds unilateral early termination rights under specified conditions.
- Binance cannot sell, transfer, pledge or hedge the shares for two years, subject to customary exceptions, while keeping full voting rights.
- CRCL closed at $94.49 on September 21, putting Binance's stake at roughly $116.9 million — about $16.9 million above its cost — though the stock is down about 34% over 12 months against a 16.5% gain for the S&P 500.
- The deal landed a day after Circle switched on Arc, its Layer 1 network using USDC as the gas token, with founding validators including BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Mastercard and Visa.
- The filing also followed a Bloomberg report that federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance breached U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Quotes
“Binance bought a $100 million stake in Circle as the companies expanded their commercial arrangement around USDC, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.”
“Circle agreed to pay Binance a monthly incentive fee based on a percentage of the USDC held through the wallet service.”
“Binance cannot sell or hedge the stock for up to two years but keeps its voting rights.”
“The filing landed a day after Bloomberg reported that federal prosecutors are investigating whether Binance breached U.S. sanctions on Iran.”