NEW YORK, Feb 8, 2026, 16:11 EST
- Circle shares bounced nearly 14% during the latest session, drawing renewed attention to the stablecoin issuer.
- Polymarket is gearing up to move away from bridged USDC.e, aiming to adopt Circle’s native USDC on Polygon in the next few months.
- Prediction markets in the United States are coming under renewed legal and regulatory scrutiny.
Shares of Circle Internet Group surged almost 14% in the latest session. Investors reacted to news of a fresh partnership set to integrate its USDC stablecoin more tightly within the infrastructure of an on-chain prediction market.
This shift is significant. Stablecoins—crypto tokens meant to keep a fixed value, typically tied to the U.S. dollar—are now more commonly serving as settlement currency for trades and payments. That lands Circle’s flagship product right at the center of growing transaction flows, just as regulators ramp up their scrutiny of both crypto and prediction markets.
Polymarket plans to move its primary trading collateral over to Circle’s “native” USDC on Polygon, the company said, pushing out the “bridged” USDC.e version that currently sits on the platform. Native USDC comes onto Polygon straight from Circle, unlike USDC.e, which has been transferred across via a token bridge.
Circle said Polymarket relies on Bridged USDC (USDC.e) on Polygon as collateral across its platform right now, but expects to move over to native USDC within the next few months. “Polymarket has been at the forefront of innovation in marrying the speed of information with the speed of markets,” according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. For Polymarket, CEO Shayne Coplan described the tie-up as “an important step” for prediction markets. https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-an…
The Block described the move as a pivot from bridge-based USDC on Polygon to Circle’s own native USDC, a development that might lessen exposure to the cross-chain bridge vulnerabilities that have dogged crypto for years.
Circle ended the session at $57.04, marking a $6.82 jump since the previous close, market data shows. Yahoo Finance’s valuation note points to renewed interest in Circle as crypto swings keep investors on alert, with focus on the Polymarket agreement and the pace of USDC adoption.
Circle bills itself as a picks-and-shovels provider for digital dollars, marketing USDC and the infrastructure that supports its movement across blockchains. For 2024, the company pulled in roughly $1.68 billion in revenue and turned a net profit of about $156 million, Reuters data show.
The regulatory wall goes up quickly. Back in 2022, Polymarket shelled out a $1.4 million civil penalty to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and started shutting down any markets out of line with U.S. law. “All derivatives markets must operate within the bounds of the law,” a CFTC enforcement official said then. Now, Kalshi is under the gun: a Massachusetts judge this week gave the prediction-market rival just 30 days to pull its sports-event contracts unless it secures a gaming license, saying the firm moved forward “with eyes wide open.” https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleas… https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/j…
Circle and Polymarket are aiming for the “coming months” to deliver, but investors want more than talk. They’ll be watching for real impact: does shifting to native USDC actually boost activity on Polygon, or is it just the same money shuffling around?
