Circle takes over nearly 1,000 patents in acquisition of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) has announced that it has acquired fundamental assets from IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) blockchain portfolio, a purchase the issuer of USDC says makes it the biggest holder of blockchain patents in the United States.

The portfolio comes with over 680 patent families and close to 1,000 issued patents worldwide, as in Circle’s press release.

Beyond core blockchain technology, the patents touch banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification, and secure cloud operations.

Circle did not disclose the cost of the acquisition. Also, it is not yet disclosed if IBM kept any licensing rights.

Circle’s general counsel and corporate secretary, Sarah Wilson, who mentioned in a statement that IBM has been a pioneer in technological innovation, stated that intellectual property is critical to advancing their “mission and expanding adoption of on-chain infrastructure.”

Where will Circle be applying the patents?

Circle stated that the IP will back its existing suite, which includes USDC, the Circle Payments Network, and Arc, the company’s enterprise blockchain. It also named financial tools built for AI agents, an area Circle has pushed through its Agent Stack products. The two companies also added that they plan to look at further commercial deals together.

The acquisition reshuffles a small league table. IBM ranked among the top US blockchain patent holders before the sale. A December 2025 study by patent analytics firm PatSnap put IBM at 790 patents, level with Advanced New Technologies and Bank of America. The latest acquisition of most of IBM’s patents pushes Circle past its rivals.

Circle received its first patent, covering parallel blockchain data processing, in December 2023 and had earlier joined the LOT Network, a group that shields members from patent-assertion firms.

How is the market reacting to Circle’s acquisition of IBM’s blockchain portfolio?

Investors nudged both stocks up in premarket trading. Circle shares rose 2.5%, with IBM up 1.6%.

The bump lands against a rough year for Circle stock. Yahoo Finance reported CRCL down 66% over the trailing 12 months to $62.36, while IBM had slipped 18% to $214.19 on July 27. Circle’s slide follows a turbulent 2025 in which the stock swung from roughly $81 to a $293 peak before giving most of it back.

Why the timing lines up

The patent deal fits a run of moves that push Circle further into regulated finance. On July 10, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted final approval for Circle to set up a national trust bank, operating as Circle National Trust, which will offer custody for digital assets. 

In May, Circle raised $222 million selling Arc tokens ahead of that blockchain’s launch, landing a $3 billion network valuation.

Owning IBM’s patents gives Circle a defensive and offensive asset as it competes for the infrastructure layer beneath stablecoin payments.

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