Circle and Dinari said the two companies have partnered to allow US investors to trade tokenized versions of US stocks using USDC stablecoins held in self-custody wallets.
The partnership gives Circle users access to 724 tokenized US stocks, including all constituents of the S&P 500, according to Dinari. The trades settle through Dinari's infrastructure, which operates under broker-dealer licensing and regulatory oversight. Circle's USDC functions as the settlement currency for all transactions.
Dinari operates a platform for tokenized equities that launched to accredited investors in 2024 and began broadening access this year. The company licenses its technology to other platforms and has positioned itself as a rails provider for on-chain stock trading rather than a retail-facing broker. Dinari's own platform previously settled trades in USDC through an integration with Circle, and this partnership formalizes access for Circle's broader user base.
Circle has steadily widened USDC use cases across lending, trading and payment channels since the token's launch in 2018. Stripe, Apple and other firms have built infrastructure around stablecoin payment rails over the past two years, though most have focused on merchant payments or remittances rather than securities trading.
Dinari's expansion into Circle's ecosystem comes as regulatory clarity around tokenized securities has improved. The SEC's May 2024 guidance on tokenized funds and subsequent no-action letters have removed some barriers to broker-dealers offering digital equity infrastructure. Dinari holds an SEC broker-dealer license and operates with custody partnerships.
The partnership does not alter either company's regulatory obligations. Dinari remains responsible for trade execution and surveillance; Circle provides only the stablecoin settlement layer. Both companies must comply with Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and market integrity rules applicable to their respective roles.
Major custodians and settlement systems have begun accepting tokenized instruments as eligible collateral, and platforms like Dinari have demonstrated that broker-dealer licenses can coexist with decentralized settlement. The partnership adds one of the largest stablecoin issuers to a tokenized equity ecosystem that has grown from fewer than 100 stocks in 2023 to over 700 today. If Dinari's platform reaches 1,000 tokenized stocks within 12 months, the competitor advantage for platforms without tokenized equity access will sharpen considerably.
The metric to watch is adoption: whether Circle's user base converts material USDC holdings into tokenized stock positions in the coming quarter.
