Circle Internet Group shares rose 2.8% in Monday premarket trading after the company said it had acquired assets from IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio. IBM shares also advanced after the announcement, gaining 1.6%. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.

The acquired assets include more than 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 granted patents across multiple jurisdictions. A patent family typically refers to related patent filings covering the same or similar invention in different countries or regions, making the geographic breadth of the portfolio relevant for companies building products and services across international markets. The patents span a wide range of blockchain-related applications, including banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud operations.

The transaction substantially expands Circle’s intellectual property holdings and is intended to strengthen the company’s ability to develop infrastructure for internet-native finance while reinforcing its enterprise blockchain capabilities. For a stablecoin issuer and payments infrastructure provider, patent assets can serve both as a foundation for product development and as a defensive tool in markets where financial technology, cloud infrastructure, and blockchain systems increasingly overlap.

Circle said the newly acquired intellectual property is aligned with its long-term strategy to build the internet financial system. The portfolio is expected to support the company’s core products and services, including the USDC stablecoin, Circle Payments Network, Arc, and a growing range of on-chain financial products and enterprise tools. The companies also said they planned to explore additional commercial opportunities following the transaction.

Sarah Wilson, Circle’s general counsel and corporate secretary, said IBM had long been recognized as a leader in technological innovation. She said the acquisition would increase Circle’s capacity to advance the infrastructure that supports global internet-based finance.

IBM’s Blockchain Patent Portfolio

IBM built one of the world’s largest blockchain intellectual property portfolios during the sector’s period of rapid expansion. Between 2018 and 2019, the technology company filed more than 500 blockchain-related patent applications, covering areas that included consensus mechanisms, enterprise supply chain management, and distributed ledger technologies.

Following completion of the transaction, ownership of that extensive patent portfolio has moved to Circle. The acquisition gives the stablecoin issuer a significant collection of intellectual property that could support future product development and strengthen its position in enterprise blockchain markets.

Circle had already shown increased focus on blockchain innovation before the IBM transaction. In December 2023, the company secured a patent for parallel block processing technology, which was designed to improve blockchain transaction throughput by allowing multiple blocks to be processed simultaneously rather than sequentially.

The addition of IBM’s patents is expected to complement Circle’s existing blockchain technologies and may support further development across payment networks, digital assets, enterprise infrastructure, and financial services.

Circle has acquired fundamental assets from the @IBM blockchain patent portfolio, including 680+ patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide. The acquisition makes Circle the leading U.S. blockchain patent holder and strengthens the foundation behind USDC, CPN,… pic.twitter.com/lp6F6z55aw — Circle (@circle) July 27, 2026

Circle has acquired fundamental assets from the @IBM blockchain patent portfolio, including 680+ patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide.

The acquisition makes Circle the leading U.S. blockchain patent holder and strengthens the foundation behind USDC, CPN,… pic.twitter.com/lp6F6z55aw

— Circle (@circle) July 27, 2026

Patent Protection and Innovation Strategy

The acquisition also fits within Circle’s broader efforts to protect its technology from intellectual property disputes. The company joined the LOT Network, a defensive patent alliance, in both 2023 and 2025. IBM is also a member of the organization, which has grown to include more than 2,800 participating companies and approximately 3.8 million patents.

The LOT Network provides automatic patent licenses to member companies if patents held by any participating member are later acquired by patent assertion entities, commonly known as patent trolls. The structure is designed to reduce litigation risks while supporting continued technological innovation among member organizations.

IBM has also pursued other blockchain-related intellectual property initiatives in recent years. In early 2021, the company collaborated with IPwe on a project examining the tokenization of corporate patents as non-fungible tokens on blockchain networks. That initiative explored how intellectual property could be converted into digital assets that may be more efficiently managed and transferred using blockchain technology.

In addition to expanding Circle’s patent holdings, the transaction positions the company to further develop its digital asset ecosystem while supporting enterprise blockchain development and broader adoption of internet-based financial infrastructure. Areas to watch following the acquisition include how Circle incorporates the portfolio into existing products, whether the companies identify additional commercial opportunities, and how the expanded patent base affects Circle’s approach to enterprise blockchain partnerships and intellectual property risk management.