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Circle acquires nearly 1,000 IBM blockchain patents for USDC ecosystem
The July 27 deal gives Circle a portfolio of over 680 patent families to use across USDC, its Circle Payments Network, Arc, and onchain AI financial tools.
Circle, the company behind USDC, acquired nearly 1,000 blockchain patents from IBM in a deal announced July 27, making it the largest blockchain patent holder in the United States. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquired portfolio includes over 680 patent families and covers areas such as banking, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud operations. Patents are legal rights that let the holder control how specific blockchain-related inventions are used.
Circle said it plans to deploy the intellectual property across its USDC business, Circle Payments Network, its Arc payment-focused blockchain, and AI-powered financial tools. Those tools include agentic software programs that can execute financial transactions autonomously, without requiring a human for every step.
According to the story, IBM had been building its blockchain patent leverage since its mid-2010s enterprise push, and a PatSnap tally credited IBM with 790 U.S. blockchain patents by December 2025, ahead of other American companies. Circle previously received its first-ever patent in December 2023 and has since moved to the top of U.S. rankings.