Misread Clarity Act drives Circle shares down 20%

Bernstein says the market misread the Clarity Act after Circle sold off. The bill focuses on distributors, not issuers.

Analysts told DL News the selloff stems from confusion over yield. “The market is conflating who earns yield with who distributes yield.”

Key point. Oversight targets platforms that move tokens to users and market yield. Not companies that mint and manage reserves. Source.

Issuers vs distributors:
- Circle issues USDC. Coinbase and others distribute it. DL News.

Stablecoin scale matters. Dollar‑pegged tokens settled over $30T on‑chain in 2025, led by USDC. Bloomberg.

USDC processed about $18T that year. Its volume share was ~45–50% in late 2025, despite under one‑third of supply. NewsBTC.

Bernstein’s read implies Circle could recover as rules clarify. DL News.