Circle, the U.S.-listed stablecoin issuer, has quietly arranged a revenue sharing agreement with Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to two people with knowledge of the arrangement.
Circle, which is sandwiched in competition between larger rival Tether and a growing crop of new stablecoins, shares 50% of the yield from reserves backing its U.S. dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin with crypto exchange Coinbase, a long-standing arrangement that has helped proliferate USDC across the industry.
Although details of the Bybit arrangement are unknown, deals between Circle (CRCL) and exchanges like Coinbase (COIN), and more recently Binance, are to foster adoption of USDC by rewarding these platforms with a portion of the interest on Circle’s reserves, and one-off payments in case of Binance.
Circle’s pre-IPO filing revealed that Binance received an up-front fee of $60.25 million from Circle, and continues to receive a monthly incentive based on the percentage of USDC balances on the exchange. This ranges from mid- to high-double-digit percent of a fixed SOFR-linked rate, according to the filing.
Competition in the stablecoin space is heating up. Circle’s USDC currently stands at close to $62 billion in circulation, while Tether’s USDT has the largest supply by some margin at about $160 billion. Chasing the two giants are the new projects such as the Robinhood-backed Global Dollar (USDG), which has revenue sharing among participants built in to drive adoption.
One person involved in cryptocurrency infrastructure said Circle has revenue sharing agreements with a number of exchanges.
“You should assume any exchange that has some material amount of USDC has an agreement with Circle,” the person said.
A Circle representative said the firm was unavailable for comment. Bybit declined to comment.