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What's Behind Circle's Growth Numbers? When I look at the growth of the stablecoin market, I no longer focus only on the amount of USDC in circulation. How much these assets are actually being used and the economic value generated by that activity matter just as much as supply. Circle's Q3 2026 results include a few details worth looking at from this perspective. The company's average USDC circulation increased 8% year over year to $73.3 billion. Onchain transaction volume grew 49% over the same period, reaching $13.9 trillion. Total revenue and reserve income came in at $865 million. But when we break that number down, we get a different picture. Revenue from USDC reserves stood at $657.6 million, down around 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. A significant part of the strong growth in other revenue came from the ARC token presale. Circle recorded approximately $181.8 million from this sale as Q3 revenue. So when looking at the $865 million total, we also need to account for this one-off contribution. Alongside these results, Circle signed an agreement to acquire Tazapay, a cross-border payment infrastructure provider. The deal is still subject to regulatory approvals, but the move shows that Circle wants to expand its payment infrastructure and institutional distribution channels. I see the Tazapay deal as part of that broader strategy. Cross-border payments are one of the real use cases for stablecoins. Having more infrastructure and stronger institutional connections in this area could help USDC become a bigger part of payment flows. Still, we shouldn't treat $13.9 trillion in onchain transaction volume as direct evidence of real commerce or final payment volume. The same USDC can move repeatedly between different addresses and transactions. That's why transaction volume alone doesn't tell us the full story of economic usage. What matters to me in Circle's results is that the company's revenue structure is changing alongside the growth in USDC circulation and usage. The decline in reserve income, the contribution from the ARC presale to total results, and investments in payment infrastructure all need to be considered together. Measuring the long-term development of the stablecoin sector through circulating supply alone is no longer enough. Actual payment usage, institutional integrations and the cost structure behind these activities are also part of the picture. Because the widespread adoption of digital dollars matters, but so does turning that usage into a sustainable business model for the issuer.

What Are Major Financial Institutions Planning for Ethereum? When talking about Ethereum's future, looking only at DeFi applications, network activity or retail investors is no longer enough. What traditional financial institutions are doing with this infrastructure and what they are building on top of it matter more and more as well. All of these topics will be covered at the Ethereum Institutional Forum in London on November 12. According to the organizers, more than 200 senior figures from banks, asset managers and financial market infrastructure providers will meet with researchers working on Ethereum. A major part of the program will focus on Ethereum's technical development. This includes how Ethereum can be protected against the risks that quantum computers could bring, plans for faster settlement and more network capacity through 2030, and a live Q&A where developers will take questions from institutions. So the discussion will also cover the technical work needed to support wider institutional use. From there, the program moves into the financial solutions institutions are building on Ethereum. Market infrastructure providers such as DTCC and Broadridge will share their experience issuing assets on Ethereum and explain what it would take to bring more institutions into this space. Tokenized funds, bank-backed stablecoins and the way DeFi connects with institutional finance will also be key topics in these sessions. J.P. Morgan and BlackRock will also be part of the program, sharing how major financial institutions are approaching this infrastructure. J.P. Morgan will discuss onchain money transfers, liquidity and settlement through deposit tokens, while BlackRock will talk about how institutional capital can make its way onto public blockchain infrastructure. The discussions won't stop at asset issuance and financial products. The program will also look at how ETH can be used beyond corporate treasury holdings, including staking, collateral and onchain financial activity. Another topic will be the liquidity, market data and settlement infrastructure needed for tokenized assets to trade at an institutional scale. For me, the strongest part of this program is that Ethereum's technical progress and the real needs of financial institutions are being discussed side by side. Institutional adoption isn't just about issuing an asset on a blockchain. Custody, liquidity, payments, trading and settlement processes all need to work with this infrastructure too. The forum is organized by Ethereum Institutional, an independent nonprofit, and co-hosted with BitMine. Chainlink, Optimism, Golem Foundation, OpenZeppelin and Gnosis are also supporting the event. This is why, at the November 12 forum, what I'll be following most closely is the concrete solutions major financial institutions are developing on Ethereum and how these efforts will be received within the traditional financial world.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧'𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬? Retail activity on spot exchanges was much less visible both when Bitcoin climbed to $125K and when it later dropped to $60K. This CryptoQuant indicator tracks changes in the frequency of smaller trades on spot exchanges. Red dots mark periods when retail activity picks up, while green dots indicate periods when that activity pulls back. Looking at the historical data, we can see two periods with a clear spike in activity. In 2022, small investors were much more active as Bitcoin fell toward $20K and then dropped to $16K during the FTX collapse. In March 2024, a similar spike appeared on the upside, as Bitcoin broke above $70K for the first time. In other words, retail traders were active during both sharp sell-offs and strong rallies. But we haven't seen the same pattern lately. The fact that the last colored signals on the chart date back to March 2024 is worth noting. Since then, Bitcoin climbed to $125K in 2025 and fell back toward $60K in 2026. Yet there was no comparable surge in retail activity on spot exchanges during either move. One possible explanation is that the way investors access Bitcoin has changed. Since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the US, some retail investors may have started buying Bitcoin exposure through ETFs in traditional brokerage accounts rather than trading directly on crypto exchanges. If that's the case, those transactions wouldn't show up in CryptoQuant's spot exchange data. What matters to me here is that this chart doesn't prove retail investors have left the market altogether. It suggests that looking only at spot exchange data may no longer be enough to understand how individual investors are behaving. Maybe what's changed isn't retail interest in Bitcoin, but the channel they're using to get exposure to it.