Circle Becomes US Blockchain Patent Leader After Acquiring IBM’s Near-1,000-Patent Portfolio #

Circle Internet Group has acquired IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio in a deal that puts the USDC issuer at the top of the US blockchain intellectual property rankings, the company announced on Monday.

The portfolio consists of more than 680 patent families and close to 1,000 issued patents worldwide, covering foundational distributed-ledger technology, banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification, and secure cloud operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Circle said the newly acquired intellectual property will be used to strengthen the underlying infrastructure of its core products, including USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, the Circle Payments Network, its Arc enterprise blockchain platform, and a growing suite of agentic financial tools.

Sarah Wilson, Circle’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, said in the announcement: “Intellectual property is critical to advancing our mission and expanding adoption of on-chain infrastructure. 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.”

CEO Jeremy Allaire called the deal “a significant milestone for Circle and our vision for the future of the internet financial system.” Circle said it also intends to explore additional commercial opportunities with IBM beyond the patent transfer.

The acquisition reflects Circle’s push to position itself as core infrastructure for the digital asset economy rather than simply a token issuer. The IBM portfolio covers settlement mechanics, compliance tooling, and interoperability, giving Circle a broad IP position as stablecoin competition from rivals such as Tether and PayPal USD intensifies. Circle’s shares rose around 2.3% in premarket trading following the announcement.

Source: Business Wire