Circle

**Circle Foundation**, established in 2025 through Circle's Pledge 1% equity commitment, has announced its **first international grant** in partnership with the United Nations. **Key Focus Areas:** - Strengthening financial systems for small businesses in the US - Modernizing humanitarian aid infrastructure globally - Building durable infrastructure for economic participation Elisabeth Carpenter shared insights on this milestone grant, which aligns with the Foundation's mission to advance **financial resilience and inclusion** for communities worldwide. The initiative demonstrates how blockchain-based financial infrastructure can scale humanitarian efforts and support underserved populations globally.

Circle clarifies that **nanopayments are not simply small payments** — they're sub-cent, high-frequency transfers as tiny as $0.000001, specifically designed for autonomous machine transactions rather than human use. As AI agents begin transacting independently, traditional payment infrastructure proves inadequate. The company argues that **new financial rails must be built to handle agent-scale value exchange**. This follows Circle's recent testnet launch of Nanopayments, which enables: - Gas-free USDC transfers - Pay-per-call APIs - Real-time compute billing - Machine-to-machine payments The infrastructure uses batched onchain settlement and x402 compatibility to support the emerging agentic economy, where AI agents operate as autonomous economic actors.

**Circle is bringing USDC and CCTP to Injective**, a blockchain optimized for trading and real-world assets. **Key features:** - Use USDC as collateral with 24/7 support - Cross-chain liquidity with 1:1 capital efficiency via CCTP - Global fiat on/off ramps through Circle Mint This follows recent USDC integrations on Morph Network and EDGE Chain. In Q3 alone, $31B in USDC moved via CCTP, showing 740% year-over-year growth. CCTP now enables seamless USDC transfers across 20+ blockchains with 380 unique routes, making cross-chain movement simpler for DeFi traders and developers. [Read more](http://circle.com/blog/usdc-cctp-are-coming-to-injective-what-you-need-to-know)

**Programmable intelligence is converging with programmable money** as AI and blockchain networks fundamentally reshape how value moves through the economy. **Key developments:** - AI agents are beginning to transact autonomously, requiring new economic infrastructure - The velocity of money could increase by orders of magnitude as these systems scale - Stablecoins and blockchain networks are forming the foundation of an "Internet financial system" **The convergence** of AI capabilities with blockchain's programmable money creates infrastructure for autonomous economic activity at unprecedented speed and scale.

Circle has released **Circle Skills**, an open-source toolkit designed to help developers and AI agents build applications using USDC, EURC, and Circle's developer platform. **Key Features:** - Compatible with popular AI coding tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex - Enables better integrations for stablecoin payments, crosschain transfers, and wallet operations - Provides context for AI systems to generate smart contract logic **Getting Started:** Developers can install the toolkit immediately using: `npx skills add circlefin/skills` The release comes as the agentic economy expands, with Circle emphasizing that proper context for AI systems is becoming as critical as the underlying code. The full repository is available at [github.com/circlefin/skills](http://github.com/circlefin/skills). This follows a similar move by Orbiter, which recently launched its own cross-chain skills toolkit for AI agents and developers.

USDC is enabling practical applications across three key areas: **Global Income Access** - Rosen connects young people with micro jobs in 150+ countries - Workers receive payment in digital dollars, bypassing traditional banking barriers **Climate Accountability** - Sproutly records carbon offsetting data onchain for verifiable transparency - USDC provides stable settlement value for climate funding - Replaces opaque reporting with proof-based systems **Nonprofit Donations** - Givepact allows nonprofits to accept crypto donations seamlessly - Converts digital assets into usable funds with clear tracking These applications demonstrate stablecoins serving practical needs: enabling cross-border payments, creating transparent environmental finance systems, and simplifying charitable giving infrastructure.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire spoke at The Economic Club about how USDC enables faster, more affordable cross-border payments. **Key Points:** - USDC provides instant digital dollar settlement across borders - Lower transaction costs compared to traditional payment rails - Expands global access to dollar-denominated transactions **Context:** Traditional cross-border payments face challenges including slow speeds, high fees, and currency conversion complexities. Stablecoins like USDC aim to address these friction points by leveraging blockchain infrastructure for near-instant settlement.

Circle's USYC has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the world's largest tokenized money market fund. This development follows the fund surpassing $2 billion in assets under management just days earlier. **Key Points:** - USYC now holds the top position among tokenized money market funds globally - The fund recently crossed the $2 billion AUM threshold on March 10, 2026 - Circle positions this as validation of their role as a leading internet financial platform - The growth signals broader adoption of onchain cash and collateral instruments USYC offers yield-bearing collateral with near-instant redemptions and is already integrated into DeFi protocols. The fund is available as collateral on Aave's Horizon RWA market, demonstrating practical utility in decentralized finance applications. The rapid growth from $2 billion to market leadership in just two days reflects accelerating institutional interest in tokenized traditional finance products. This trend suggests that onchain versions of conventional financial instruments are gaining traction in global markets.

**Circle Alliance Program member SGB is connecting traditional banking with digital assets** through USDC-enabled settlement capabilities. **Key features:** - Banking infrastructure integration for stablecoin transactions - Real-time payment connectivity - USDC-based money movement support The platform bridges conventional financial systems with digital asset settlement, allowing institutions to move money using stablecoins through existing banking channels. [Learn more about Circle Alliance Program](https://www.circle.com/alliance-program)

Circle has launched **Nanopayments** on testnet, enabling transactions as small as **$0.000001 with zero gas fees**. The system is designed specifically for AI agent commerce and machine-to-machine micropayments. **Key Features:** - Micropayments down to one-millionth of a dollar - Zero gas fees for transactions - Built for AI agent-to-agent commerce - Leverages USDC's programmability and interoperability **Technical Integration:** Circle is integrating its Gateway with **x402**, an open payment protocol for agentic transactions. The company is also collaborating with Google on Agent2Agent (A2A) and contributing to the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). The testnet launch represents Circle's push into the intersection of crypto and AI, aiming to create infrastructure where humans and AI agents can participate seamlessly in the same internet economy. Developers can review Circle's proposal on the [x402 GitHub](https://circle.com/nanopayments) and contribute to the open protocol development.