Safe, an on-chain asset custody protocol, has announced a collaboration with Circle today to integrate USDC into its network as the preferred stablecoin for institutional self-custody and on-chain treasury activities. The partnership aims to align treasury operations, compliance workflows, and liquidity access for institutions that seek reliable and secure custodial infrastructure.
Circle’s USDC, a fully backed, regulated stablecoin infrastructure, will be integrated with Safe’s programmable, policy-aware smart contracts to create an institutional-grade solution for managing fiat currency on-chain. The collaboration will create an end-to-end experience comprising onboarding, policy-based approvals, role-based spending controls, and direct access to DeFi liquidity.
Safe to utilize Circle’s CCTP architecture in eliminating inefficiencies
Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which enables native USDC minting and burning across supported blockchains, will allow balances to move seamlessly between networks without the need for wrapped tokens. Safe revealed in its press release that the CCTP architecture will natively enable users to perform cross-chain treasury movements, eliminating inefficiencies associated with centralized intermediaries.
Safe recently launched Safe Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary tasked with delivering enterprise-grade self-custody infrastructure. The platform guarantees uptime and service-level agreements (SLAs) and oversees the SafeWallet interface.
Dune Analytics data indicate that Safe has a total locked value exceeding $60 billion and processes approximately 0.53% of all Ethereum transactions. Worldchain leads in the number of transactions within the custody protocol by chain, with 62.32%. The firm has also recorded approximately 724 billion transactions across all chains, with Q1 2025 alone accounting for 189.6 billion, a 65% quarter-over-quarter increase.
Safe revealed that over $57 billion in USDC has moved through its platform since 2023, with $25.3 billion in USDC transfers made in September. The on-chain custody protocol now secures $2.5 billion in USDC. It has crossed half a billion in transaction volume, establishing itself as a platform for institutional stablecoin operations.
“Institutional money flows into self-custody infrastructure and DeFi, and institutions need secure, scalable tools to keep up. With Circle, we’re positioning USDC as a core pillar of the Safe ecosystem, so Safe becomes a home for institutional stablecoin DeFi.”
–Lukas Schor, Co-founder of Safe and the President of the Safe Ecosystem Foundation.
Circle stock has shed over 10% this week
Safe collaboration with Circle came just three months after Circle’s New York Stock Exchange listing. The stock’s current market cap stands at $31.09 billion, and it has a 61.12% stock return over the past year. Cryptopolitan covered the IPO story, noting the opening price for the first trading day at $69, which surpassed previous predictions of the price discovery.
Circle’s stock rallied during its debut on the NYSE, briefly climbing to $84.92, over 174% above its IPO price of $31. Soon after the trading started, excessive volatility led to a trading halt after triggering a limit-up circuit breaker. Early traders reported an inability to buy shares as the price rallied in minutes. Today, the stock is trading at $133.90, representing a 2.53% decline over the past 24 hours and a gain of over 10% over the past week.
Kash Razzaghi, Circle’s Chief Commercial Officer, noted that institutions typically seek trusted and scalable infrastructure to manage their capital as they transition on-chain. He acknowledged that Safe has already proven itself as a reliable platform for USDC adoption at scale.
The collaboration between the custody protocol and Circle creates a secure, composable, and compliant capital management model. Schor suggested that the model could set a precedent for institutional adoption of on-chain finance, especially as treasury management shifts from custodial intermediaries to programmable, auditable self-custody systems.
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