stable coins
By Sydney TheCMO
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The Coinbase Agreement Comes Up for Renewal. The deal at the center of all this dates to August 2023.
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Hyperliquid's AQAv2 Model Catches JPMorgan's Eye. Then there's Hyperliquid. The decentralized trading platform has its own native stablecoin, USDH,…
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Circle's Trust Bank Approval Adds Some Leverage. Circle did get some good news on the regulatory front.
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Circle paid out $1.4 billion in distribution costs tied to Coinbase last year. That's not a rounding error — it's basically half the company's income gone before anything else…
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The $1.4 billion figure, up sharply from $924.5 million the year before, ate through roughly 51% of Circle's total revenue and reserve income for 2025.
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The deal at the center of all this dates to August 2023. Circle and Coinbase put a collaboration agreement in place then, and it's set to expire — or get renegotiated — before…
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Coinbase is still the primary centralized distributor for USDC. That's not changing tomorrow.
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The core issue is pretty simple: Circle earns income on the reserves backing USDC, and it has to share a lot of that income with the platforms that distribute the stablecoin.
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Then there's Hyperliquid. The decentralized trading platform has its own native stablecoin, USDH, which hasn't come close to matching USDC's liquidity.
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More context: Hyperliquid Joins Circle and Coinbase in a Deal That Squeezes USDCs Revenue Model
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JPMorgan flagged the Hyperliquid model as a potential earnings concern for both Circle and Coinbase. It's not hard to see why.
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And it's not a hypothetical. The AQAv2 framework is live. The question is whether it spreads.
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Circle did get some good news on the regulatory front. The company received approval to establish a national trust bank, which gives it a credential most competitors don't have.
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Still, the pressure is real. If major exchanges start demanding Open USD-style revenue sharing, or if more DeFi platforms build out Hyperliquid-style frameworks, Circle's current…
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Read also: Mizuho Keeps Circle at Neutral as USDC Loses Ground to Stablecoin Rivals
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