Circle Buys IBM's Blockchain Patents, Becomes America's Top Holder
Circle, the company behind the USDC digital dollar, bought nearly 1,000 blockchain patents from IBM, instantly becoming the largest holder in the US.
Circle just went from almost no patents to being America's biggest blockchain patent holder—overnight.
Circle is the company behind USDC, a stablecoin (a type of digital currency designed to always be worth exactly $1). On July 27, Circle announced it bought IBM's entire blockchain patent collection—technology IBM spent over a decade building.
First, what's a patent? It's a legal right that gives you exclusive control over an invention. If you hold a patent on a method, you decide who else can use it and on what terms. And blockchain is the shared digital record where crypto transactions are permanently stored and can't be changed.
Here's what Circle got:
- Over 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide
- Technology covering banking, insurance, supply chains, and secure cloud systems
- The financial price was not disclosed
Why does Circle want these patents? It plans to use them across all its products, including USDC, its payment network, and its own blockchain called Arc (built for big financial institutions). It also mentioned AI-powered financial tools that can carry out transactions automatically, without a human approving each step.
There's an interesting twist. IBM is also backing a rival stablecoin called Open USD, which launched June 30 with 140+ big-name partners like Visa, Mastercard, and Google. This rival is designed to steal market share from Circle's USDC. So IBM sold Circle its technology while also supporting a competitor.
The bottom line: Circle now owns a huge stack of blockchain patents, giving it powerful legal protection—and possibly a weapon to use against competitors. After the news, Circle's shares (ticker CRCL) rose 2.57%.
This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://decrypt.co/374388/circle-ibm-blockchain-patent-estate