Binance has invested $100 million in stablecoin issuer Circle as part of an expanded five-year agreement to promote USD Coin (USDC) on the crypto exchange. Circle sold Binance $100 million in stock and agreed to pay monthly incentives under the expanded partnership.

Circle issued Binance 1,237,011 shares of its Class A common stock at $80.84 per share in a private placement on Sept. 17, according to a Tuesday filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The purchase price reflected a discount to Circle's market price before the transaction closed, coming in roughly 14% below the stock's Monday closing level.

Circle's Class A shares, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, rose more than 1.3% in Tuesday's premarket activity after closing Monday at $94. apiece, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Under the agreement, Circle will pay Binance a monthly incentive fee based on the amount of USDC held through Circle's Modular Smart Contract Wallet infrastructure. Binance, for its part, agreed to undertake additional activities promoting USDC on its platform. The structure ties Circle's payments to how much USDC sits on Binance — one of the world's largest crypto exchanges and among the main venues where users acquire and hold stablecoins — giving the exchange a direct financial incentive to grow USDC balances on its platform.

The equity investment carries a lockup: Binance has agreed not to sell, transfer, assign, pledge or hypothecate the Circle shares for up to two years. The restriction could end earlier if Binance terminates the commercial agreement under certain conditions, though Binance retains voting rights over the shares during the lockup period. Pairing discounted equity with a lockup gives Binance a longer-term ownership stake in Circle for the life of the commercial deal, rather than a position it could exit immediately.

The new arrangement replaces agreements the companies entered into in November 2024 and August 2025. It has a five-year term, although either party can terminate it early under specified circumstances. With the companies' commercial terms twice reworked in under two years, the early-termination provisions — and their knock-on effect on the share lockup — are the details to watch as the longer deal unfolds.

Source: Cointelegraph