Circle shares fall as revenue miss overshadows profit beat

Circle Internet Group had a quarter that tells two very different stories at once. The company beat profit expectations, watched its stablecoin circulation hit record levels, and processed an almost incomprehensible volume of onchain transactions. The market’s response: a roughly 3% drop in premarket trading on May 11, 2026. The numbers that mattered, and the one that didn’t Circle reported Q1 2026 total revenue and reserve income of $694 million, a 20% jump year-over-year. Sounds solid until you see the consensus estimate was $715 million. In English: analysts expected $21 million more, and that gap was enough to overshadow nearly everything else. On the profit side, Circle actually outperformed. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.21 against analyst expectations of $0.18. Adjusted EBITDA grew 24% to $151 million. The messy part is net income from continuing operations, which fell 15% year-over-year to $55 million. That decline points directly at the interest rate environment. Circle’s reserve income, the money it earns by holding US Treasuries and other safe assets backing USDC, gets squeezed when rates fall. USDC is growing. Fast. USDC in circulation reached $77 billion in...