Circle didn't IPO as a crypto company. It IPO'd (NYSE: CRCL, July 2025) as an unlevered money-market fund wearing a fintech wrapper. Reserve income — interest earned on the cash and short-dated Treasury bills backing every USDC token — was 95.5% of Circle's $694 million in Q1 2026 revenue. That reserve sits in the BlackRock-managed Circle Reserve Fund, which is contractually required to hold at least 99.5% of assets in cash, T-bills, and Treasury-backed repo. Translation: Circle's income statement is a fed funds rate multiplied by USDC's float, full stop. The FOMC held the target range at 3.50%-3.75% on June 17, and the next decision — July 28-29 — is live for a hike, not a cut, per the Fed's own June statement citing elevated inflation. Every basis point in that range flows straight through Circle's P&L before a single new user touches crypto. Layer on Treasury Secretary Bessent's deliberate tilt toward short-duration bill issuance (bills now ~21-22% of marketable debt, trending higher), and you get a policy environment mechanically favorable to reserve yield — even as USDC supply growth (up 39% YoY) does the compounding on top.