# Teardown: Circle's May 2026 USDC examination report

A line-by-line walk through Circle's May 2026 USDC reserve examination: the stated reserve assets against USDC in circulation, the month-over-month composition shift from repo into Treasuries, and what the document's own metadata does and does not state.

Circle publishes a monthly examination report for USDC<Cite n={1}/>; this teardown
walks the May 2026 document — issued 2026-06-29, reserve figures as of
2026-05-29 — as parsed and hash-anchored on the
[USDC 2026-05 attestation page](/attestations/usdc/2026-05). Figures are
the document's own, at its stated scope. Nothing here is a judgment of any
issuer's solvency.

<MarketColor>

What stands out in May is that the composition moved more than the
headlines did. Reserves and circulation contracted together by about
1.16 billion dollars — near-lockstep, as the steady ratio implies — but
inside the reserve, roughly 1.8 billion left overnight repo while direct
Treasury holdings grew by about 3.0 billion. A reader who only checks
the coverage ratio would call this an uneventful month; the interesting
part is a size-adjusted reshuffling of what the reserve actually holds.

</MarketColor>

## The headline figures

Each amount below is read from the stored report row when this page
renders, so a restatement of the report changes it here too.

| Figure | Stated amount |
| --- | --- |
| Total USDC reserve assets | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOTAL_RESERVE"/> |
| USDC in circulation | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOKEN_LIABILITY"/> |
| Coverage ratio (stated total over stated circulation) | 1.001004, as of 2026-05-29 |

The report states two as-of dates (2026-05-05 and 2026-05-29); the
composition above is at the later one. Publication lag — issue date minus
latest as-of date — is 31 days, measured from the document's own dates.

## Composition: where the reserve sits

The document's own category lines, labels unabridged:

<CompositionChart token="USDC" period="2026-05"/>

Beyond the category rows, the document itemizes 30 individual positions
with instrument identifiers — 46 parsed rows in total, cross-footed before
anything landed.

## Month over month: out of repo, into Treasuries

Against the April 2026 report (as of 2026-04-30):

| Line | 2026-04 | 2026-05 | Change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Total reserve assets | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-04" field="TOTAL_RESERVE"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOTAL_RESERVE"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOTAL_RESERVE" measure="delta"/> |
| USDC in circulation | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-04" field="TOKEN_LIABILITY"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOKEN_LIABILITY"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOKEN_LIABILITY" measure="delta"/> |
| Treasury repurchase agreements | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-04" field="TREASURY_REPO"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TREASURY_REPO"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TREASURY_REPO" measure="delta"/> |
| U.S. Treasury securities | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-04" field="US_TREASURY"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="US_TREASURY"/> | <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="US_TREASURY" measure="delta"/> |

Circulation and reserves both contracted, by
<Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOKEN_LIABILITY" measure="delta"/>
and <Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TOTAL_RESERVE" measure="delta"/>.
Within the reserve, repurchase agreements changed by
<Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="TREASURY_REPO" measure="delta"/>
while direct Treasury holdings changed by
<Figure token="USDC" period="2026-05" field="US_TREASURY" measure="delta"/>.

<AttestationCard token="USDC" period="2026-05"/>

<MarketColor>

The arithmetic above is the parsed document pair and nothing more:
repo down about 1.8 billion, direct Treasuries up about 3.0 billion, on
a smaller total. Interpretation — market color, clearly separated from
that arithmetic: moving out of overnight repo into held Treasury
securities trades daily-resetting exposure for locked-in short-dated
yield, a modest extension of duration posture. That is the shape a
manager chooses when the front end looks more attractive to hold than to
roll. The document states no motive, so none is inferred here — the
rotation is worth flagging mostly as a thing to watch for continuation,
because one month is a data point and two is a posture.

</MarketColor>

<SubscribeCTA symbol="USDC"/>

## What the document's metadata states — and does not

- **Engagement type:** examined, under AICPA attestation standards, per
  the document's own citation.
- **Accountant name:** no accountant name appears as a text span in the
  captured PDF — recorded as not found in the document, not inferred from
  outside it.
- **Per-chain circulation:** stated as one total; no per-chain breakdown
  appears, so no per-chain reconciliation is derived.
- **Disclosure score:** 9 of 11 rubric dimensions met (the two above are
  the unmet ones) under rubric tb21-disclosure-v1.

Disclosure scores are not shown on ReserveBeat's token or attestation pages yet.

One housekeeping note: this month's row was re-parsed under an upgraded
template, so the attestation page shows a
[restatement](/learn/restatement) flag — the superseded parse remains
on the evidence chain, independently verifiable, with the same captured
source hash.

<MarketColor>

For the June 2026 report, three things are worth watching. First,
whether the repo-to-Treasuries rotation continues — a second month would
make it a posture rather than a data point. Second, whether circulation
resumes growth after May's 1.16 billion contraction, and whether
reserves track it as closely as they did here. Third, on the disclosure
side, whether either unmet rubric dimension changes — an accountant name
appearing as a text span in the document, or circulation itemized per
chain. The score moves only when the documents do, which is exactly how
it should be.

</MarketColor>

## Disclaimer

ReserveBeat renders figures from issuer-published reports and public blockchains, verbatim and at their stated scope. It is not an auditor, makes no attestation, and states no opinion on any issuer's solvency. Nothing here is investment, trading, legal, tax, or accounting advice. No figure published here is a recommendation to hold, buy, sell, or redeem any token.

Tracked tokens are subjects of public data: supply figures are read from their public Ethereum contracts, and composition figures from the issuers' own published attestation reports. No tracked issuer is a customer and none has endorsed this site.

Source: https://reservebeat.com/research/usdc-attestation-teardown-2026-05