Circle takes over nearly 1,000 patents in acquisition of IBM's blockchain patent portfolio

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) has announced that it has acquired fundamental assets from IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) blockchain portfolio, a purchase the issuer of USDC says makes it the biggest holder of blockchain patents in the United States.

The portfolio comes with over 680 patent families and close to 1,000 issued patents worldwide, as in Circle’s press release.

Beyond core blockchain technology, the patents touch banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification, and secure cloud operations.

Circle did not disclose the cost of the acquisition. Also, it is not yet disclosed if IBM kept any licensing rights.

Circle’s general counsel and corporate secretary, Sarah Wilson, who mentioned in a statement that IBM has been a pioneer in technological innovation, stated that intellectual property is critical to advancing their “mission and expanding adoption of on-chain infrastructure.”

Where will Circle be applying the patents?

Circle stated that the IP will back its existing suite, which includes USDC, the Circle Payments Network, and Arc, the company’s enterprise blockchain. It also named financial tools built for AI agents, an area Circle has pushed through its Agent Stack products. The two companies also added that they plan to look at further commercial deals together.

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