Circle Says 90% of Hyperliquid's $5.5B USDC Held on Coinbase

USDC News

Circle used its second-quarter earnings call to detail how it compensates distribution channels for USD Coin (USDC), revealing that roughly 90% of the USDC held by Hyperliquid is attributed to Coinbase and about 10% to Circle. The New York-listed stablecoin issuer said the Hyperliquid arrangement involves three parties — Coinbase, Circle and Hyperliquid itself — and on-chain data corroborates the split: the Coinbase Treasury Deployer address on HyperEVM held $4.952 billion at quarter-end, while Circle's CoreDepositWallet address carried $550 million, a ratio the AQAv2 system actively rebalances toward nine-to-one. Management framed the disclosure within a broader channel strategy: Circle has signed more than 150 distribution agreements that use economic incentives to grow the stablecoin's reach, and it is prepared to co-design deals with Coinbase when a large partner can materially expand USDC usage. When an analyst asked whether Hyperliquid retains 90% of the interest income with the remainder split between Circle and Coinbase, the chief financial officer confirmed the three-party structure but declined to describe the precise economics. The company did not publish the deal's final revenue terms. Under the existing framework, USDC held off both platforms generates “ecosystem economic benefits” divided 50/50 after approved third-party incentives are deducted.

The earnings call also confirmed that Circle has renewed its long-running USDC agreement with Coinbase on unchanged terms, preserving the stablecoin's most important distribution rail. Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire said the renewal keeps USDC central across Coinbase's product suite, though the issuer again did not publish the agreement's specific economics. Allaire described the company's approach as pursuing distribution agreements with partners whose strategic objectives align, while the CFO noted that both Circle and Coinbase can add new partnerships whenever a third party can meaningfully lift USDC adoption. The extension lands while Circle's core business keeps expanding: second-quarter total and reserve revenue reached $701 million, up 7% year over year, and USDC's circulating supply stood at $73.3 billion by period-end, scale built in part through the 150-plus partner network. On capital allocation, the company drew a firm line. Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fox-Geen ruled out a quarterly dividend, arguing that reinvesting cash into the platform should deliver superior shareholder returns relative to payouts, and described Circle as a growth-oriented listed company intent on holding a strong balance sheet through different market cycles. Renewing the Coinbase alliance without renegotiation and forgoing dividends point the same direction: Circle is prioritizing USDC distribution scale over near-term capital returns.

On August 6, Circle announced on its official blog that USDC and the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) are live on X Layer, the Ethereum-compatible layer-2 blockchain operated by exchange OKX. CCTP moves USDC natively between blockchains, removing the need for third-party bridges. The deployment gives OKX's user base — more than 120 million people by the company's count — access to natively issued USDC for dollar payments, cross-chain movement and DeFi lending and borrowing, alongside AI-driven trading use cases that X Layer supports. Circle positioned the rollout as a way to provide a reliable dollar-stablecoin foundation for the exchange's existing audience. Tokens on the network are minted with one-to-one dollar reserves and structured to comply with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules, and eligible institutions can mint and redeem through Circle Mint via OKX and the OKX DEX Bridge. The integration extends CCTP to 26 supported blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche and Polygon PoS, while BNB Smart Chain is covered only for USYC rather than USDC. A bridged variant, USDC_Bridged, already circulates on X Layer and will keep that label as existing bridges continue operating; Circle said it will work with ecosystem applications to migrate liquidity toward the native issuance.

COINOTAG's analysis: these three threads form one distribution-first arc — Circle is buying USDC scale by sharing economics rather than defending them. The company's own investor-relations disclosure anchors the structure: off-platform USDC revenue is split 50/50 with Coinbase after approved incentives, the Coinbase agreement renewed on existing terms, and Hyperliquid's roughly $5.5 billion attributed 90/10 across custodial platforms. Circle did not publish Hyperliquid's precise income split or the renewal's financial terms, so third-party economics remain undisclosed. With CCTP spanning 26 chains and more than 150 distribution pacts signed, the 2026 playbook is legible: widen USDC's surface area first and let reserve income follow.