| Item | Value |

| :— | :— |

| Symbol | CRCL |

| Shares | 18.63819 |

| Price per Share | $80.4799 |

| Total Invested | $1,500.00 |

Final Calculation: >

$$18.63819 \times \$80.4799 \approx \$1,500.00$$

here is a specific, itchy kind of dopamine that hits when you press the “Buy” button on a stock that the rest of the market seems to be side-eyeing. Today, that itch cost me exactly $1,500.00.

I just added 18.63819 shares of Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL) to my portfolio at $80.4799 per share.

Logically, I know the “value trap” is the oldest siren song in investing. Buying a stock simply because it looks “cheap” is often a fast track to holding a bag. But I can’t help it. Looking at the charts today, seeing CRCL sitting so far below its post-IPO highs (which touched $135 earlier this year), I don’t feel reckless. I feel cunning.

But before I let my ego run away with me, I sat down for a “meeting of the minds” between my two internal investors: EnthusiasMe and SkepticMe.

---

The Internal Debate: A Circle of Logic

SkepticMe: “$1,500? On a declining knife? You’re buying Circle because it’s ‘cheap,’ but cheap things are usually cheap for a reason. Are you sure you’re not just being stubborn?”

EnthusiasMe: “It’s not just cheap; it’s a bargain. We are buying at $80 when the fundamentals of the Circle-Coinbase engine are actually strengthening. You have to look at the plumbing, not just the price tag.”

SkepticMe: “The plumbing? You mean the fact that they’re basically a glorified piggy bank for Treasury bills?”

EnthusiasMe: “Exactly! But it’s a piggy bank that doesn’t need to lend money to survive. Think about why we’re doing this: I hate banks. Traditional banks are clunky, slow, and they take our money to make risky bets. Stablecoins are the ultimate bank killers. Circle is building a digital, global dollar that doesn’t need a marble lobby or a predatory loan department to function.”

---

The Data: Why Circle (and USDC) is a “Perfect” Business

To justify this $1,500 trade, I had to look at the 2023-2024 restructuring. For those who haven’t been following the boring-but-vital legal filings, here is why Circle is a different beast now.

1. The Symbiotic Marriage with Coinbase

In 2023, the “Centre Consortium” was dissolved. Circle became the sole issuer of USDC, while Coinbase took a minority stake (roughly 3–5%) in Circle. This wasn’t a breakup; it was a marriage of convenience.

• Circle provides the infrastructure, the compliance, and the issuance.
• Coinbase provides the massive distribution network and the liquidity.

2. The “Elegant” Revenue Engine

Here is the part that makes me feel so cunning: the Interest Revenue Share.

When you buy 1 USDC, Circle takes your $1 and puts it into “The Circle Reserve Fund,” mostly comprised of US Treasury Bills and cash.

The math is staggering. If there are $30 billion in USDC reserves, those Treasuries generate roughly:

$$\$30,000,000,000 \times 0.05 = \$1,500,000,000 \text{ per annum}$$

Circle and Coinbase split this “booty.” Coinbase gets a massive cut for the USDC held on its platform, while the “circulating” USDC (the stuff in your private wallets or DeFi) is split roughly 50/50. It’s almost pure profit.

3. The “Royalty Stream” Paradox

SkepticMe: “If Coinbase is the one getting the lion’s share of the profit without the legal headache of being the issuer, why not just buy Coinbase?”

EnthusiasMe: “You could. Many hedge funds do. They see Coinbase as a ‘royalty stream’ on USDC. But by buying Circle at this $80 level, we are betting on the issuer of the world’s most compliant stablecoin. Circle is the one building the Layer-2 integrations and the global payment rails. If USDC doubles in size, Circle’s valuation as the core infrastructure becomes undeniable.”

---

Why Now? The “Bank Killer” Thesis

Let’s be real: I’m buying this because I want to see the traditional banking system sweat.

Circle is essentially a “Digital Bank without the Loans.” Unlike a traditional bank that might crumble if too many people ask for their money back (because that money is tied up in 30-year mortgages), Circle keeps its reserves in ultra-liquid, short-term Treasuries. It’s a cleaner, more transparent model.

SkepticMe: “But what if Circle ‘sends Coinbase to the curb’ and keeps all the profit for themselves?”

EnthusiasMe: “They can’t. They are interdependent. Without Coinbase’s millions of users and the liquidity of the Base network, USDC loses its edge against Tether. They are stuck with each other, and that stability is exactly what I’m betting on.”

The Final Verdict

I’m aware that buying near the 52-week low is a psychological trap. But when I look at a company that generated hundreds of millions in interest revenue while I was sleeping, and whose main product is slowly replacing the wire transfer, I can’t resist.

Is it stupid to buy because it’s “cheap”? Maybe. But when the “cheap” asset is the literal infrastructure of the future of money, it feels less like a mistake and more like a heist.

Trade Details Recap:

| Item | Value |

| :— | :— |

| Symbol | CRCL |

| Shares | 18.63819 |

| Price per Share | $80.4799 |

| Total Invested | $1,500.00 |

Final Calculation: >

$$18.63819 \times \$80.4799 \approx \$1,500.00$$

Disclaimer:
This is not financial advice. This is a man seeing a “discount” tag and immediately forgetting everything he has ever read about valuation.

If this trade works, it was skill.
If it doesn’t, it was a macro misunderstanding of liquidity cycles.

Either way, I remain intellectually consistent and emotionally fragile.