Circle has acquired more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued blockchain patents from IBM, a deal that makes the USDC issuer the largest blockchain patent holder in the United States. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The portfolio spans banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, secure cloud operations, and foundational blockchain technology. Circle said it plans to use the intellectual property across USDC, Circle Payments Network, its Arc blockchain, and AI-powered financial tools.

Circle, the company behind USDC, said the transaction announced July 27 gives it control of a blockchain patent library IBM spent more than a decade building. USDC is a digital dollar used globally for payments, savings, and international transfers.

Patents grant their holders legal rights over specific inventions. In the context of blockchain, a patent on a method for processing transactions on a shared digital ledger can allow the holder to determine whether others may use that method and under what terms. IBM had accumulated that position through its enterprise blockchain push beginning in the mid-2010s.

For a stablecoin issuer moving deeper into payments infrastructure, patents can serve several practical purposes: protecting proprietary systems, supporting licensing discussions, and reducing exposure to disputes as banks, payment companies, cloud providers, and enterprise software firms build around shared ledgers. The value of a patent portfolio depends on the scope and enforceability of the individual patents, not only on the number of patents held.

By December 2025, patent analytics firm PatSnap credited IBM with 790 U.S. blockchain patents, more than any other American company. Bank of America ranked a distant second with roughly 200, according to the same analysis. Circle received its first patent in December 2023 for parallel blockchain data processing, a technique for verifying multiple groups of transactions at the same time. With the IBM acquisition, Circle moved from a minimal patent position to the top of the U.S. blockchain patent rankings.

"The portfolio comprises over 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide, spanning foundational blockchain technology, banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud operations," Circle said in its official announcement.

Circle said the expanded intellectual property position will support products and infrastructure across its business. "The expanded IP position directly supports Circle's foundation for building the internet financial system, including USDC, Circle Payments Network, Arc, and a growing suite of onchain products and agentic financial tools," the company added.

Arc is Circle's payment-focused blockchain designed for institutional finance. Agentic financial tools refer to AI-powered software programs that can execute financial transactions autonomously without human involvement at each step.

"Intellectual property is critical to advancing our mission and expanding adoption of onchain infrastructure," said Sarah Wilson, Circle's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. "IBM has been a pioneer in technological innovation, and this acquisition expands Circle's ability to advance the infrastructure that powers global, internet-native finance."

Before the acquisition, Circle had joined the LOT Network, a coalition designed to protect members from lawsuits by patent assertion entities, often described as patent trolls. Those firms typically acquire patents to seek licensing fees or settlements rather than to build products. With nearly 1,000 issued blockchain patents now in its portfolio, Circle has a significantly larger intellectual property position, though the company has not said whether it plans to use the patents offensively.

IBM is also a confirmed partner in Open Standard, the consortium behind Open USD. Open USD is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar that launched June 30 with more than 140 backers, including Visa, Mastercard, Google, BlackRock, Stripe, and Coinbase. Open USD distributes reserve income directly to partner distributors rather than retaining it, a model that competes with a key revenue source for Circle.

IBM has therefore sold its foundational blockchain intellectual property to Circle while also backing a stablecoin project positioned to compete with USDC. CRCL shares rose 2.57% on Monday after the announcement.