Circle Internet Group, issuer of the stablecoin USDC, recorded the fastest growth among global fintech companies in 2025. While the proliferation of digital asset payments and on-chain finance boosted its performance, its volatile stock price and high corporate valuation continue to pose a challenge to the market.
Circle announced on the 18th (local time) that its annual revenue for 2025 has increased by more than 66% year-on-year. This represents the highest growth rate among digital asset-friendly fintech companies. However, its absolute revenue volume remains limited compared to existing large fintech companies.
Circle's revenue in 2025 is estimated at approximately $2.93 billion (approximately 4.3 trillion won). Its core revenue source is fees generated from stablecoin issuance and circulation. According to DeFirama data, Circle's daily fee revenue has roughly doubled over the past 12 months, exceeding $8 million per day by the end of the year. The Circle Deployer smart contract, which handles USDC issuance on the Ethereum network, was one of the most actively used contracts throughout the year.
USDC's proliferation isn't limited to Ethereum. Circle has aggressively increased its supply within the Solana ecosystem, solidifying its position as a core liquidity asset for decentralized exchange trading and lending services. USDC has become the de facto standard payment and settlement medium for Solana-based financial services, boasting fast processing speeds and low fees.
Circle is expanding beyond on-chain finance to include traditional fintech payment infrastructure. Mastercard has integrated stablecoins into its payment gateway in some markets, and USDC has been added as a payment method to Worldpay. Global payment and financial infrastructure companies such as Stripe, Finastra, and FIS are also expanding their scope of use by introducing stablecoin options.
The full-fledged implementation of stablecoin regulatory frameworks in the US and Europe has also enhanced USDC's competitiveness. Unlike USDT, which faced regulatory uncertainty, USDC is considered to have expanded its reach with institutional finance by emphasizing a regulatory-compliant stablecoin.
Meanwhile, the market's attention is focused on corporate value as much as growth. Circle's stock price, which started at around $81 in early 2025 and soared to $293 at one point, fell back to around $82 by the end of the year, remaining in a loss-making range since its IPO.
As of 2025, Circle's sales-to-corporate value ratio is estimated to exceed 25x, and its net profit-to-corporate value ratio is estimated to be around 35x. This is a significantly high valuation compared to mature fintech companies like PayPal, which have annual sales-to-corporate value ratios of approximately twice that.
Despite this, Circle's market capitalization exceeds $18 billion, maintaining its position among the top five global fintech companies. The market believes that the rapid adoption of stablecoins within the institutional system and the steady improvement in issuance and operating revenue will be key variables in determining the company's future value. Attention is focused on whether the pace of USDC's expansion can justify its current valuation.
