"We're playing the long game," said Circle's president — while selling shares into a 76% crash

Heath Tarbert, president of USDC issuer Circle, has been publicly defending the company's long-term strategy as CRCL shares crash — while at the same time continuing to sell his own shares in the company, not all of it under preset trading plans.

How Far the Stock Has Fallen

Circle's stock collapsed from around $260 shortly after its IPO to the low $60s, a roughly 76% drop from its peak. In just the past month alone, the stock lost more than 40%, and roughly 68% over the past year. The biggest source of pressure has been the launch of Open USD, a rival dollar stablecoin backed by a coalition of more than 140 companies, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, and even Coinbase. Circle's removal from five Russell growth indexes in June added further pressure.

What Tarbert Is Saying Publicly

In a July 14 interview with FOX Business, Tarbert said management remains focused on building financial infrastructure rather than reacting to short-term stock moves:

We're playing the long game. — Heath Tarbert, President of Circle

According to Tarbert, if the company keeps executing its long-term plan — including building out its own Arc blockchain infrastructure — "the stock is going to take care of itself." As evidence of USDC's staying power, Tarbert pointed to roughly $73 billion in circulation and native support across 34 blockchains — network effects he said would be "incredibly hard to replicate" for rivals.

What Tarbert Himself Has Been Doing

Alongside the public reassurances, Tarbert has sold Circle shares in seven of the thirteen months since the company's IPO. His largest sale came on March 2, 2026 — 122,007 shares worth about $11.5 million. Eight of ten sales were executed under a preset Rule 10b5-1 plan — a written trading schedule executives set up in advance while not in possession of material nonpublic information, which formally shields such sales from insider-trading suspicion. As of July 20, 2026, Circle insiders overall had sold $30.8 million in stock on preset plans — even as ARK Invest was buying the dip on the other side of the trade.

How to Read This

Technically, most of Tarbert's sales carry no direct signal about his personal view of the company's future — trading under a 10b5-1 plan doesn't necessarily mean a loss of confidence in the business. But the combination of "we're playing the long game" public messaging with a steadily shrinking personal stake creates an awkward contrast that Circle investors couldn't help but notice, layered on top of an already sharp stock decline.

This material is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.