Circle Slashes 5% of Staff as Q3 Earnings Smash Forecasts

Circle took an axe to about 5% of its staff, Cointelegraph reported, just as its third-quarter numbers landed well above expectations. The stablecoin giant posted earnings per share of $0.84 for the quarter. That's more than double what analysts had penciled in.

The optics are hard to miss: fewer people on payroll, fatter bottom line. Job cuts and a blowout beat, delivered together, suggest a company tightening its belt while the business underneath keeps humming.

Circle is the outfit behind USDC, one of the largest dollar-pegged stablecoins on the market, and it trades publicly under the CRCL ticker. Its results get watched closely because they act as a read on how much demand there is for tokenized dollars and the yield that sits behind them.

The report didn't say which teams lost roles or how many employees that 5% actually represents. Cointelegraph was first to flag the combination of the headcount reduction and the earnings beat.

What matters now is the follow-through. Markets will want to know whether the cuts are a one-off trim or the start of a longer stretch of cost discipline — and whether Circle can keep posting earnings that lap analyst estimates while it's busy restructuring.