Circle now largest U.S. blockchain patent holder

Circle said it acquired key assets from IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio, including more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide. The company said the purchase gives it an expanded intellectual property position across foundational blockchain technologies and financial services use cases.

The portfolio includes patents related to core blockchain infrastructure, banking and financial services, insurance, enterprise systems, supply chain verification and secure cloud operations. Circle said the assets will support development of its internet-native financial products such as the USDC stablecoin, the Circle Payments Network and its Arc enterprise blockchain.

Circle and IBM intend to explore further commercial opportunities tied to the transferred assets. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sarah Wilson, Circle’s general counsel and corporate secretary, said intellectual property is important to advancing the company’s mission and to expanding adoption of onchain infrastructure. She added that IBM has been a pioneer in technological innovation and that the acquisition expands Circle’s ability to develop the infrastructure behind internet-native finance.

Following the announcement, Circle’s publicly traded shares rose more than 5% after the company disclosed the transaction. USDC’s supply was over $74 billion in circulation as of late July.

Circle and IBM did not provide a timetable for integrating the patents into product development or for specific commercial projects. IBM will remain a potential commercial partner as the companies evaluate cooperative opportunities tied to the transferred assets.

Circle launched the USDC stablecoin and has expanded into payments rails and enterprise blockchain services. The company markets Arc as an enterprise blockchain for economic applications and operates a payments network for cross-border money movement. The acquired patents add an intellectual property layer to those offerings, covering methods for transaction verification, enterprise integration and secure data handling in cloud environments.