Munger Mode rating: 2 out of 5 — Sell. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
We have spent our lives looking for businesses that set their own prices, keep their own profits, and control their own destiny. Circle fails all three tests. It is a money market fund wearing a software company's clothes: 95% of its revenue is interest income on other people's money, the interest rate is set by the Federal Reserve, and roughly 60 cents of every interest dollar is handed to distribution partners — chiefly Coinbase — before Circle sees a dime. The float itself shrank last quarter. The GENIUS Act, celebrated as Circle's great validation, is in fact commoditizing the product by design: it standardizes reserves, invites banks and Tether onto Circle's home field, and pushes the economics toward whoever owns the customer. Circle does not own the customer. This is not a fraud and not a zero.
Recent filings analysed: 8-K (2026-09-08), 8-K (2026-08-05), 10-Q (2026-08-05), 10-K/A (2026-07-13).
Stock screener · Superinvestor 13F holdings · Analyst sentiment · Market valuation