Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has bought nearly 1,000 issued patents in the blockchain field from IBM. It now formally holds the largest blockchain patent portfolio of any US company. For an industry where intellectual property fights were mostly a lone-startup problem, this is an unusual move.
What exactly did Circle buy?
The portfolio spans more than 680 patent families. It covers not just pure blockchain tech, but also work in banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification and cloud security. Circle disclosed the details in its own press release. Deals of this size are rare in crypto. Companies usually either fight over individual patents one at a time, or skip building a portfolio altogether and rely on trade secrets instead.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. IBM once ran a sizable blockchain business of its own, including the IBM Blockchain platform and its role in the Hyperledger Fabric project, where it tested supply-chain tracking with Maersk and Walmart. Those pilots never turned into a mass commercial hit. In recent years the company shifted its main focus to cloud services and AI, turning a large patent portfolio into an asset that simply sat waiting for a buyer.
Why does a stablecoin issuer even need blockchain patents?
A patent portfolio this size works in two directions at once. It gives Circle the right to license technology to other companies and profit from it. But the bigger point is defense: it shields the company from lawsuits by so-called patent trolls, firms that buy up patents purely to sue working businesses later. Blockchain startups make an easy target for that kind of firm, since there are many new technical approaches and not much settled case law yet. Traditional tech had the same fight for years, with patent trolls suing phone makers and retailers, and crypto is now going through the same script with a new cast of players.
Circle already had some experience here. It received its first patent, covering parallel blockchain data processing, back in December 2023. Before that, it joined the LOT Network, a community of companies that cross-license patents specifically to guard against patent trolls.
- Troll defense: a large portfolio makes it harder to sue Circle or its partners
- The option to license technology to outside developers without risking a countersuit
- A technical base for its own Arc blockchain and the Circle Payments Network
- Groundwork for further partnership with IBM, details of which neither company has shared yet
Who held these patents before the deal?
Before the sale, IBM remained one of the industry leaders in US blockchain patents. Here is how the balance of power looked ahead of the deal, based on estimates from analytics firm PatSnap.
Advanced New Technologies and Bank of America sat alongside IBM near the top of that list at the time. After the deal, the balance in that small club shifted instantly, and entirely in Circle's favor. A patent family groups related applications filed in different countries that protect the same invention, so 680-plus families mean far broader geographic coverage than 680 individual US patents alone would. That's not great news for smaller crypto startups. They now have to negotiate with Circle specifically if their tech ever overlaps with one of these patents. Previously those rights were spread across several holders, and a startup could cut a deal with any one of them.
What do these patents give USDC, Arc and AI agents?
Circle said it will use the acquired technology to support USDC, the Circle Payments Network and its own Arc blockchain. A separate line in the press release covers financial tools for AI agents, meaning programs that initiate payments and settlements on their own, without a person in the loop. The logic is simple. If a program buys cloud capacity or API access at 3 a.m., it needs settlement in seconds, with no bank holidays or clearing delays. A regular wire transfer isn't built for that, while a stablecoin like USDC fits the job far better. That is still a fairly new frontier even for the market's bigger players.
"Intellectual property is critical to advancing our mission and expanding adoption of onchain infrastructure."
- Sarah Wilson, Circle's general counsel and corporate secretary, from the company's press release, July 27, 2026
Circle and IBM also agreed to explore further commercial opportunities together. Neither company named a timeline or specific direction, so partnership details will most likely surface separately, later on.
What this says about the stablecoin market
Circle shares (CRCL) rose 2.5% in premarket trading on the day of the announcement. The news landed as Bitcoin climbed back above $65,000 following a pause in the US-Iran standoff, with risk assets broadly higher.
The deal strengthens Circle's hand against Tether, issuer of USDT and still the largest stablecoin by market cap. A portfolio of this size turns Circle from a pure fintech player into a company with its own technology arsenal, the kind big Silicon Valley firms carry. A similar pattern is showing up across the industry: tougher regulatory bars in Europe are pushing crypto companies toward mergers and acquisitions instead of organic growth. Over just the past month, several large financial groups moved into stablecoin infrastructure, from bank-led USDC minting to tokenized government bonds, and Circle's patent shield became one more step in that same direction.
IBM and Circle have not said whether IBM keeps licensing rights to part of the portfolio, or whether Circle plans to license any of it out itself. Both companies are still describing the next step only in general terms, without concrete timelines or figures.
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