By Isaac • July 27, 2026 11:04 pm •
Circle has acquired nearly 1,000 issued blockchain patents worldwide from IBM, giving the company behind USDC a large new intellectual-property position in a single transaction. Announced July 27, 2026, the deal reaches into banking, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply-chain verification, and secure cloud operations alongside foundational blockchain technology.
The two headline numbers describe different things. Circle says the acquired assets comprise more than 680 patent families, which group related applications or grants covering the same or closely related invention across jurisdictions, and nearly 1,000 individual patents already issued around the world.
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Circle’s announcement says the acquisition makes Circle the leading holder of blockchain patents in the United States. That ranking is Circle’s claim, and the company did
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