Circle pays millions for Binance distribution while its margins collapse

- Circle’s paying Binance millions to distribute USDC while margins bleed out. It’s a classic meat wallet move: Circle hands over high-double-digit percentages of reserve income just to keep $7 billion in customer balances on the exchange. That’s not strategy; that’s buying visibility with burning cash. Sure, Binance invested $100 million for equity, but when distribution costs eat 61% of reserve income, you aren’t building an empire—you’re funding your biggest competitor’s server bill. The ratio of USDT to USDC is shrinking, sure, but Circle’s profitability is getting crushed by the very channel it’s trying to dominate. Aggressive passive income requires actual passivity, not handing over the keys to Binance’s treasury incentives. If you can’t manage your own hash manifest, don’t expect the market to bail you out.