Why Did Circle Need IBM's Forgotten Technologies? A Deal That Went Unnoticed

At first glance, the news seems boring. Some patents, some long-forgotten IBM with boxy computers. But if you look into it, it becomes clear that this could be a long-term bet on the future of crypto infrastructure.

What happened?

On July 27, Circle officially announced the acquisition of more than 680 patent families, including nearly 1,000 IBM patents. The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

According to the company, once the transaction is complete, Circle will become the largest holder of blockchain patents in the United States.

The most interesting thing here isn't even the number of patents, but the question that immediately comes to mind after reading the news:

Why IBM, specifically?

Is IBM still involved in blockchain?

Many people don't associate IBM with cryptocurrencies at all. And indeed, in recent years, the company has virtually disappeared from the crypto scene.

However, just a few years ago, the situation was completely different.

From 2016 to 2020, IBM was one of the global leaders in enterprise blockchain. The company filed hundreds of patents each year and, for a long time, ranked among the largest holders of blockchain technology patents alongside Alibaba and Mastercard.

IBM's main focus was not on cryptocurrencies, but on the use of blockchain in the corporate environment.

The company developed its own IBM Blockchain platform, based on Hyperledger Fabric, and collaborated with the world's largest corporations.

The projects included:

• Walmart;
• Maersk;
• IBM Food Trust;
• banks and insurance companies;
• logistics companies.

The idea was simple: to use blockchain as a reliable infrastructure for storing and sharing corporate data.

Why have they been forgotten?

While the crypto industry was evolving around Ethereum, DeFi, and stablecoins, IBM was building closed corporate solutions that lacked tokens, decentralization in the conventional sense, and open ecosystems.

The best-known example is the TradeLens project, developed in collaboration with Maersk.

The platform was intended to become the global standard for digital logistics and bring together participants in global trade.

However, a few years later, the project was shut down.

The main reason was the lack of widespread adoption. Many of Maersk's competitors were reluctant to use a system controlled by their largest competitor.

After that, IBM gradually shifted its priorities toward cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and the watsonx platform, and the corporate blockchain initiative ceased to be a strategic priority.

What exactly did Circle receive?

In fact, Circle has benefited from more than a decade of IBM's research.

The portfolio covers developments in the following areas:

• blockchain infrastructure;
• banking processes;
• financial services;
• insurance;
• supply chains;
• secure cloud computing;
• corporate accounting and data exchange systems.

Why might this be more important than it seems?

Most people know Circle as the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.

But today, the company is gradually evolving into a much larger infrastructure player.

In addition to USDC, Circle is actively developing:

• Circle Payments Network;
• Arc's proprietary blockchain;
• corporate payment solutions;
• tools for scheduling payments and interacting with AI agents.

Against this backdrop, the acquisition of the patent portfolio no longer appears to be a random transaction, but rather a logical extension of the strategy.

How much might a purchase like this cost?

The parties did not disclose the value of the transaction.

However, it is practically impossible to sell nearly a thousand registered patents for a nominal amount.

It is extremely difficult to value a portfolio like this. The value of individual corporate patents can vary by a factor of ten or more, depending on their field of application and legal validity.

Even by a very conservative estimate, the deal could potentially be worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

There's another interesting point

Despite having the largest patent portfolio, Circle is not a member of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) —an association of companies that voluntarily commit to not using blockchain patents against other industry participants.

The company is also a member of the LOT Network, which protects its members from patent trolls.

To date, Circle has not announced any intention to use the acquired patents against competitors; however, the very fact that COPA is not included has already sparked discussion within the professional community.

Why now, of all times?

A general trend has become apparent over the past few months.

Major financial companies are actively building next-generation infrastructure.

Banks are launching their own stablecoins.

Countries are testing digital currencies.

Payment systems are integrating blockchain.

Against this backdrop, intellectual property is gradually becoming a strategic asset.

KLЁ's Opinion

Every technology follows the same path.

At first, there’s a lot of hype and overblown expectations surrounding it. Then comes disappointment; projects are shut down, and the market shifts its focus to the next trendy topic. It is at this very moment that most people give up on the technology.

What if IBM wasn't wrong about the technology, but just got the timing wrong?

Perhaps ten years ago, the market really wasn’t ready for most of the solutions she was creating. But today, as banks launch stablecoins, governments test digital currencies, and major payment companies build new financial infrastructure, many of these innovations may get a second chance.

History is full of examples where technologies were considered to have no future until someone found a new use for them. Perhaps the same will happen with IBM’s blockchain legacy.