Company: CRCL
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form Type: S-1/A
Source: 0001193125-25-126208
Chunk: 253

Company: Circle Internet Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form: S-1/A
Chunk 253
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 Customers Bancorp, Inc.       |     | Q2 Holdings, Inc.          |     | WEX Inc.                |
| Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. |     | Repay Holdings Corporation |     |                         |

Following Semler Brossy’s appointment as the Compensation Committee’s independent consultant, the Compensation Committee revisited the compensation peer group for fiscal year 2025 to specifically focus on FinTech, financial services, and digital platform companies within a similar size of Circle, as measured by revenue, market capitalization, and EBITDA. As a result, the Compensation Committee removed five entities due to size and less direct industry comparability (Customers Bancorp, Inc., Marqeta, Inc., Repay Holdings Corporation, Synovus Financial Corp., and Upstart Holdings, Inc.) and added nine companies with stronger industry comparability (BlackLine, Inc., DocuSign, Inc., Dropbox, Inc., Evercore Inc., Enova International, Inc., Lending Tree, Inc., Remitly Global, Inc., Robinhood Markets, Inc., and World Acceptance Corporation). 177

Analysis of fiscal year 2024 compensation Elements of NEO compensation The fiscal year 2024 executive compensation program consisted of the following elements: base salary, short-term incentive compensation, and long-term equity incentive compensation in the form of RSUs. Each element, which is further discussed below, is intended to reward and motivate executives in different ways consistent with our overall compensation philosophy. Each of the above-described compensation elements for our NEOs for fiscal year 2024 is discussed in detail below, including a description of the particular element and how it fits into our overall executive compensation philosophy and objectives. Base salaries Each of the NEOs is paid a base salary commensurate with his or her skill set, experience, performance, role, and responsibilities. For fiscal year 2024, the annual base salaries for Mr. Allaire, Mr. Fox-Geen, Ms. Carpenter, Mr. Tarbert, and Mr. Chandhok were $900,000, $500,000, $500,000, $500,000, and $500,000, respectively. For fiscal year 2025, the annual base salaries for Messrs. Allaire, Fox-Geen, Tarbert, and Chandhok remain unchanged. Short-Term Incentive Plan (“STIP”) The STIP is a cash-based annual bonus plan that rewards our NEOs and other executives for the achievement of key short-term objectives established