Let's just say Circle (CRCL) CEO Jeremy Allaire has a few concerns about the increasing power of AI.
"I have been very concerned on the impact of frontier AI on the risk environment," Allaire said on Yahoo Finance. "My view is once we flip into a world where effectively agentic computing could work at scale, which was really about six months ago, that the velocity of change would increase dramatically, and the risk environment is accelerating dramatically."
"That has nothing to do with crypto," he added. "Any critical infrastructure, any major industry, hospital systems, energy systems, utilities, financial industry partipants — everyone has risk here. I think that risk is intensifying and accelerating. I think it requires a completely different operating model and a very different private-sector/public-sector coordination model. I think the threat vectors are some of the most intense vectors we have ever seen in the history of the world. I think we are in a hot environment right now, and everyone needs to be operating from the assumption that they are under attack."
Read more: Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire: 'Billions of agents' will soon flood the workforce
Circle delivered strong top and bottom lines for the third quarter on Wednesday, despite the rising AI risk Allaire is worried about — and partially because of AI helping his many teams move faster on projects.
Total revenue and reserve income of $865 million increased 17% year over year. Adjusted operating profits rose 85% to $317 million.
On-chain transaction volume for the flagship stablecoin USDC (USDC-USD) jumped 49% year over year to a record $13.9 trillion, even as average circulation grew at a more measured 8% pace to $73.3 billion.
Circle also announced a $400 million all-stock agreement to acquire cross-border payments platform Tazapay, reinforcing its push to expand institutional fiat-to-crypto rails across global markets.
Circle stock was down 12% in midday trading Thursday. The stock is down 4% year to date.
Follow Brian Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email him at [email protected].
