USDC (Circle): Reserves, Examination, Fees, and Chains

What USDC is

USDC is a dollar stablecoin. The issuer group is a stack of named companies, and the names do real work. Circle Internet Group, Inc. is the public parent. Circle Internet Financial, LLC is the US operating company. It owns the reserve fund. A New York trust company and a French entity carry the licensed legs ^[5]. Inside the European Economic Area, Circle France co-issues the token. Outside it, the US company does ^[5]. The issuer’s own policy text reads entity claims precisely, and this page follows it.

The token’s job is the same as any dollar stablecoin’s: move dollar value across networks at token speed. What differs is the reserve design, and that is where this page spends its words.

The latest examination

The report of record is the July 2026 examination. It carries two report dates, 8 July and 31 July 2026, the later one at 11:59 PM CUT ^[1]. Deloitte & Touche LLP performed the work under attestation standards set by the AICPA ^[1]. The firm has examined the issuer since fiscal 2022; Grant Thornton held the role before that ^[2].

The report examines a specific management assertion. The assertion is that the fair value of assets held in the USDC reserve equals or exceeds USDC in circulation ^[1]. An examination under attestation standards is not a financial statement audit, and this site never phrases it as one. The attestations page unpacks that distinction in full.

What the reserves are made of

The examination states reserves of $71,904,101,332 as of 31 July 2026. The reserves sit in two places. The Circle Reserve Fund held $60,717,246,965. It is a government money market fund under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Segregated accounts held $11,186,854,367. They are unencumbered and sit at regulated financial institutions ^[1].

Inside the fund, repo agreements dominate at $52,723,000,000. US Treasuries add $7,179,080,057. Cash adds $1,003,971,911, less $188,805,003 pending settlement ^[1].

So the reserve is short-date government paper, not a diversified portfolio. The report also defines what it excludes. Tokens allowed but not yet issued are one such class, and those definitions affect the arithmetic ^[1].

The issuer’s own page put circulation at $74.3 billion as of 7 September 2026 ^[3]. That figure is a rounded marketing render with a later date. Where the two disagree in kind, the report figures govern. Where they differ in date, both carry their dates.

The chain roster and its dates

Chain counts on issuer surfaces have churned, so the dates do the work. The July examination lists 37 approved blockchains. TRON appears with an exception. For TRON, only redemptions are supported ^[1]. The issuer’s September pages also say 37, but the set changed. Two names left and two arrived ^[3]. A count without its date is meaningless on this subject, and this page refuses to print one.

The USDC on Tron page carries that story in full, including the discontinuation notice and what current holders can still do. The token’s largest network home is Ethereum; the chains hub covers the networks themselves.

What redemption costs

The Terms of Use commit the issuer to redeem 1 USDC for 1 USD, subject to the terms, applicable law, and any fees ^[4]. Direct redemption runs only through a Circle Mint account in good standing ^[4]. Wire tokenization and wire redemption are free. Outbound transfers cost the actual network fee incurred ^[6].

Tiered thresholds took effect 15 March 2026. The Basic tier has no daily fee and up to two business days of processing. The Standard tier charges 5 basis points on net redemption. Its first $2 million per day is free, and it processes near-instantly. The Institutional tier charges 5 basis points on gross ^[6]. Which tier applies depends on the account, not on the holder’s preference.

What holders do not receive

The Terms are explicit about yield. The issuer may hold reserves in interest-bearing instruments. Holders are not entitled to any of that interest ^[4]. Any yield a wallet app offers on USDC comes from the app’s own arrangement, not from the reserve. That distinction is worth a sentence on a page people read before they lend a stablecoin out.

The monthly program

Unlike the quarterly cadence at the other major, this program is monthly. The issuer publishes a report each month. The work follows AICPA attestation standards, and the assurance covers reserve value against circulation ^[2]. The comparison page sets the two programs side by side, cadence included, because cadence is one of the real differences between the tokens.

How to check any figure here

Every figure traces to a dated document. Reserve figures are the examination dated 31 July 2026. Circulation is the issuer page dated 7 September 2026. The fee tiers carry their own effective date, 15 March 2026. The token pages on this site never blend those dates, and the stablecoins hub holds the rest of the pillar.