NEW YORK, May 4, 2026, 10:02 EDT
Circle Internet Group shares surged roughly 10% out of the gate in New York on Monday, following word from Coinbase that lawmakers struck a deal on a crucial stablecoin measure in a U.S. crypto bill long stalled in the Senate. Coinbase stock advanced close to 5%.
This is a big deal for Circle. The company’s flagship, USDC, is right in the thick of it—USDC is a stablecoin, pegged to the dollar at $1. Traders’ appetite for USDC feeds directly into the reserves that Circle relies on for income.
A deal like this might clear up a major question for Circle and Coinbase—specifically, can crypto companies give users rewards for holding stablecoins, without those rewards counting as bank interest? Banks have pushed back against the idea, warning these products might siphon off deposits and disrupt lending.
Coinbase on Friday announced a deal was struck on the provision, potentially paving the way for the bill in the U.S. Senate. According to Reuters, Punchbowl News reported the final language came from Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks, setting a broad ban on rewards “economically or functionally equivalent” to interest on bank deposits. Reuters
Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s chief policy officer, wrote on X—Reuters picked it up—that banks secured tighter caps on rewards. Still, Shirzad emphasized that crypto firms “protected what matters.” People can continue earning rewards tied to real activity on crypto networks and platforms. Reuters
The implications for Circle are straightforward. USDC’s supply hovered around $77.4 billion, making up a chunk of the roughly $320.8 billion stablecoin market, per DeFiLlama. Tether still dominates, holding a 59% share with USDT.
Circle’s main revenue stream comes from putting USDC reserves into cash-equivalent holdings and short-term Treasuries, pocketing yields from those assets. In February, the company said USDC’s circulation jumped 72% on the year, reaching $75.3 billion by the fourth quarter. That surge pushed reserve revenue up to $733 million.
“The key takeaway is that USDC continues scaling rapidly,” Jeff Cantwell at Seaport Research Partners told Reuters following Circle’s fourth-quarter numbers. CEO Jeremy Allaire had also told Reuters that while high rates boost reserve income for now, a move to lower rates might drive more money movement and support adoption. Reuters
Circle has its first-quarter results coming up on May 11, with the webcast kicking off at 8 a.m. ET, according to last month’s announcement from the company. For investors, it’s a quick way to see if USDC growth and reserve income are balancing out those ongoing hits from distribution expenses and tweaks to reward rules.
The compromise hasn’t made it into law yet. Reuters was unable to confirm Punchbowl’s report right away, and regulators would still have to hammer out rule details around stablecoin disclosures and what kinds of rewards are allowed. Narrow language could cut back on incentives that fueled USDC’s user growth on Coinbase.
Circle, headquartered at One World Trade Center in New York, made its public debut last year and lists on the New York Stock Exchange as CRCL. Lately, the stock is reacting less to swings in crypto and tracking more closely to how Washington spells out the rules for regulated digital dollar players.
