Circle Buys IBM’s Blockchain Patents to Boost Payments Network

Digital financial platform Circle acquired IBM’s blockchain patent portfolio, according to a Monday (July 27) press release.

“With this acquisition, Circle becomes the leader in blockchain patent holdings in the United States,” the release said. “The expanded IP position directly supports Circle’s foundation for building the internet financial system, including USDC, Circle Payments Network, Arc, and a growing suite of on-chain products and agentic financial tools.”

The IBM portfolio consists of more than 680 patent families and close to 1,000 issued patents, covering banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, secure cloud operations, and foundational blockchain technology, according to the release. Circle also plans to explore other commercial opportunities with IBM.

“Intellectual property is critical to advancing our mission and expanding adoption of on-chain infrastructure,” Sarah Wilson, general counsel and corporate secretary at Circle, said in the release. “IBM has been a pioneer in technological innovation, and this acquisition expands Circle’s ability to advance the infrastructure that powers global, internet-native finance.”

In other Circle news, the company announced this month that it got permission from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create a national trust bank.

Circle National Trust will offer fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates, and it could also offer its digital asset custody service to institutional customers directly.

“OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system,” Circle Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jeremy Allaire said at the time in a press release. “Federal oversight of our trust bank sets a new standard for transparency, governance and scale for Circle’s infrastructure and unlocks a new phase of adoption, where leading financial institutions can build on public blockchains with clarity and confidence.”

Meanwhile, traditional finance (TradFi) is focusing on the ongoing transformation of blockchain from “digital currency” to “real-time settlement network.”

“TradFi is not broadly embracing decentralized finance, with its open-ended governance, anonymous counterparties and dependence on self-custodied assets,” PYMNTS reported July 17. “It is taking selected components of blockchain, such as programmability, shared ledgers, tokenized ownership and near-real-time settlement, and placing them inside regulated institutions, controlled networks and familiar commercial relationships.”