Company: CRCL
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form Type: S-1/A
Source: 0001193125-25-126208
Chunk: 232

Company: Circle Internet Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form: S-1/A
Chunk 232
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ities and derivatives laws

The CFTC has stated in
guidance and before Congress, and federal case law relating to CFTC enforcement actions have supported, that at least some digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ether, and certain stablecoins, fall within the definition of “commodity” under
the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”) and the regulations of the CFTC thereunder. In particular, on October 12, 2023, the CFTC expressly stated in a complaint against a third party that USDC is a “commodity” as defined in
the CEA and indicated that futures, options, and swap contracts relating to USDC are squarely within the CFTC’s jurisdiction. The CFTC has regulatory and supervisory authority with respect to so-called
“commodity interest” transactions—namely, futures, options, swaps, other derivative products, and certain retail leveraged commodity transactions—involving digital assets that are
non-security commodities, including the markets on which these products trade. The CFTC also has regulatory and supervisory authority over leveraged retail commodity transactions. In addition, the CFTC retains
enforcement authority to police against fraud and manipulation in spot (i.e., cash) non-security commodity markets, including spot markets for digital asset commodities such as USDC.

Securities laws

Our longstanding view is that neither USDC nor EURC is a
“security,” and that our offers and sales of USDC and EURC are not securities transactions. We believe that neither USDC nor EURC, nor our offers and sales of USDC and EURC, meet the elements of the Howey test or satisfies the
Reves test. Among the reasons for our conclusion is that holders of USDC and EURC do not have a reasonable expectation of profits from our efforts in

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respect of their holding of USDC and EURC. Circle stablecoin ownership does not convey the right to receive any interest, rewards, or other returns in respect of holdings of Circle stablecoins.
In addition, the reserves backing Circle stablecoins are composed solely of low-risk and readily liquid assets—such as short-term U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents—and are, at all times, held in amounts that equal or exceed the value of
Circle stablecoins in circulation. In addition, such reserves are used only for redemption of Circle stablecoins and not for our (or any other entity’s) operational or general business purposes; are not otherwise lent, pledged