Circle Enters USDC Yield-Farming Agreement with Bybit

On July 10th, as per sources with knowledge of the matter, Circle has reached a revenue-sharing agreement with Bybit in a quiet manner. As disclosed in Circle's IPO prospectus, the company has had similar cooperation arrangements with exchanges. For instance, there has been a long-standing agreement between Circle and Coinbase: Coinbase can obtain 50% of the interest income from USDC reserves. This arrangement has promoted the widespread use of USDC in the industry. Although the details of the agreement with Bybit have not been made public, similar agreements also involve partnerships with Binance. Circle collaborates with these exchanges with the intention of distributing the USDC reserve interest income to them. In some cases, one-time payments are even provided to encourage these platforms to promote the use of USDC. Circle's prospectus shows that Binance once received a one-time prepayment of up to $60.25 million from Circle. At the same time, it also regularly earns revenue sharing linked to the SOFR rate based on the balance of USDC on their platform, with the percentage ranging from the median to the high single digits. As the stablecoin market competition intensifies, Circle faces a dual challenge from established competitor Tether and several emerging projects. The current circulating supply of USDC is approximately $62 billion, while Tether's USDT leads by a wide margin with a supply of around $160 billion. Meanwhile, new projects like the Global Dollar (USDG) supported by Robinhood are also on the rise, attracting users through built-in revenue-sharing mechanisms.