Circle Buys Up IBM's Blockchain Patent Portfolio in Major Expansion
Circle has expanded its infrastructure by acquiring IBM's blockchain patent portfolio, making it the largest corporate holder of blockchain patents in the US.
The deal includes over 680 core blockchain-related patents worldwide and about 1,000 issued patents, covering areas such as core blockchain technology, banking, financial services, and insurance enterprise infrastructure.
Circle plans to use this intellectual property to develop on-chain financial services, including the USDC stablecoin, the Circle Payments Network, its enterprise blockchain platform Arc, and AI-based agentic finance tools.