Company: CRCL
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: DRS/A
Source: 0000950123-25-001965
Chunk: 226

Company: Circle Internet Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: DRS/A
Chunk 226
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 our company and operations. See “—Our platform, products, and ecosystem—The Circle stablecoin network—Circle Mint” and “Glossary—The issuers of Circle stablecoins” for more information.

We place great importance on safeguarding Circle stablecoin reserves and keeping them bankruptcy remote from our general creditors. As a consequence, we believe
that Circle stablecoins are structured in a manner that

151

CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT REQUESTED BY CIRCLE INTERNET GROUP, INC. PURSUANT TO 17 C.F.R. § 200.83

entitles the holder to absolute beneficial ownership of the underlying reserve
assets, given that we hold only bare legal title to the underlying assets but have no beneficial interest or property rights in such assets. Therefore, the reserve assets backing USDC and EURC, beyond the bare legal title that we hold, should not be
considered property of our bankruptcy estate in the event of a bankruptcy or insolvency. Due to the novelty of stablecoins, however, courts have not yet considered the treatment of underlying reserve assets in the context of a bankruptcy or
insolvency of a stablecoin issuer and have only issued a limited number of rulings related to digital assets in the context of a bankruptcy or insolvency. Should a court conclude—consistent with our position—that the underlying reserve
assets are the property of stablecoin holders, and not the bankruptcy estate, stablecoin holders may still experience delays in recovering the underlying assets due to, among other things, bankruptcy administration, ongoing litigation, or
application of the automatic stay. At the same time, it is possible that a U.S. court, in the case of USDC, or a French court, in the case of EURC, could instead determine that the reserve assets backing USDC and EURC, respectively, are property of
our bankruptcy estate. If this were to happen, other creditors of Circle may be able to obtain recoveries from the underlying reserve assets and holders of Circle stablecoins could be treated as general unsecured creditors of Circle, which could
result in Circle stablecoin holders receiving only partial recoveries rather than the full purported value of their stablecoin holdings.

We will continue to
monitor legal, regulatory, and other developments in order to take reasonable and appropriate steps to continue the safeguarding of Circle stablecoin reserves.

Intellectual property

The protection of our technology and intellectual
property is an important aspect of our business. We rely upon a combination of trademark, patent, trade secret, and copyright laws in