coincodex.com
Circle has acquired nearly 1,000 blockchain-related patents from IBM. This makes it the largest holder of blockchain patents in the United States. The firm did not disclose the financial aspect of the deal.
The buy comes at an interesting time for the firm. Its CRCL stock has been under pressure as new competition emerges. Experts downgraded their target for the stock, especially with the heavy insider selling activity.
Circle becomes America's largest blockchain patent holder
The firm revealed in its press release that it bought more than 680 patent families. These families include blockchain technology, banking, financial services, insurance, cloud security, enterprise infrastructure, and supply-chain verification.
IBM was one of the biggest blockchain patent owners in the United States before the sale. A December 2025 report by patent analytics firm PatSnap showed that IBM had 790 blockchain patents.
This purchase will help Circle support the company's products like $USDC, the Circle Payments Network, and its Arc blockchain.
Sarah Wilson, the company's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, said that owning patents would help the firm to build better on-chain financial infrastructure.
“Intellectual property is critical to advancing our mission and expanding adoption of onchain infrastructure,” she said. “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.”
The company got its first blockchain patent in December 2023 for parallel blockchain data processing.
It is also worth noting that the firm did not reveal how many of the new patents are registered in the United States. The press release also did not say if IBM will keep licensing rights to the patents or it will be licensed to other companies.
How did CRCL stock react to the news?
Investors reacted to the update quite positively. The shares rose about 2.5% during premarket trading at first before Monday's trading session began. The stock is now up by 5% as the Nasdaq opening bell rang, which is great considering the amount of pressure the shares faced in recent weeks.
Mizuho analysts had downgraded the stock from "Neutral" to "Underperform." They also lowered their year-end price target from $85 to $50 amid the competition it faced.
A major factor that weighed on the stock was the launch of OpenUSD. This new stablecoin allows institutions to share reserve income, unlike Circle’s $USDC. This gives banks or other firms an incentive to adopt the new stablecoin.
Another issue that affected the stock was the insider selling activity. For context, Company President Heath Tarbert had apparently been selling shares since June 2025.
Filings showed that he completed 10 separate transactions, reducing his holdings by about $30.77 million. He made no single purchase in that time. Data also showed that insiders completed 154 sales of CRCL shares.
The new patent purchase looks to have reversed this course, and investors would be hoping this momentum lasts.