Duan Yongping establishes a position in a cryptocurrency company for the first time: Why Circle?

Author: Hu Tao, ChainCatcher

The well-known investor Duan Yongping, who is praised as the "Chinese Buffett," recently submitted the first quarter 13F holdings report to the U.S. SEC for his family wealth management firm H&H International Investment LLC, covering the period ending March 31, 2026.

According to the report, Duan Yongping's investment portfolio has significantly increased from $17.49 billion in the previous quarter to $20.004 billion. In addition to maintaining heavy positions in Apple (AAPL), Berkshire (BRK.B), and Nvidia (NVDA), a new face has caught the attention of both the crypto industry and value investors: the stablecoin giant Circle (NYSE: CRCL).

Although the $19.08 million investment represents only 0.2% of Duan Yongping's vast portfolio, this signal is highly symbolic. For a veteran value investor who traditionally invests only in "understandable companies with moats and good cash flow," the logic behind buying Circle is worth pondering.

From Rejection to Acceptance

It is well known that Duan Yongping is one of China's most successful entrepreneur investors and one of the few Chinese investors who have truly practiced Buffett-style value investing for a long time and achieved great success.

However, for a long time, Duan Yongping has maintained a cautious attitude towards blockchain and Web3. In recent years, he has rarely publicly engaged in the Web3 craze and has not frequently discussed concepts like NFTs, DeFi, or public chains like some tech investors. Throughout the various cycles of Bitcoin's price surges and crashes, Duan Yongping has also shown no obvious interest.

This is actually not surprising. Duan Yongping's core investment framework is essentially closer to the Buffett system: emphasizing long-term cash flow, understandability of business models, brand and channel moats, and the quality of management. He particularly favors companies with strong consumer mindsets, high free cash flow, and long-term compounding capabilities, such as Apple, Kweichow Moutai, and Berkshire.

Most past crypto projects, however, have struggled to meet these standards.

Many Web3 projects heavily rely on token price drives, have fragile business models, and unsustainable cash flows; the industry has long been accompanied by regulatory uncertainties, governance chaos, and cyclical bubbles. These characteristics almost inherently conflict with the "certainty" emphasized by traditional value investors.

But Circle is an exception. Compared to many crypto projects that rely on "storytelling" or speculative behavior to maintain valuations, Circle resembles a typical financial infrastructure company.

Why Circle?

Circle's core business is not "speculating on coins," but issuing the stablecoin USDC and earning interest income through reserve assets like U.S. Treasury bonds. Its profit model is actually closer to that of money market funds, payment clearing platforms, or even "digital dollar banks."

This also means that its revenue sources are highly predictable. The latest financial report from Circle for the first quarter of 2026 further reinforces this point.

The report shows that Circle's total revenue for Q1 reached $694 million, a year-on-year increase of 20%, with 94% coming from reserve income; adjusted EBITDA reached $151 million, a year-on-year increase of 24%.

More importantly, its core business metrics are still expanding rapidly: the circulation of USDC reached $77 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28%; the on-chain transaction volume of USDC reached $21.5 trillion, a staggering year-on-year increase of 263%.

This means that Circle has formed a relatively complete "stablecoin interest machine." In the context of high interest rates in the U.S., the interest income generated from USDC reserves is rapidly growing, making Circle one of the few large companies in the crypto industry that truly has stable cash flow and can achieve sustained profitability.

Circle's financing history Source: RootData

For an investor like Duan Yongping, who emphasizes "the essence of business," Circle has finally begun to present a "comprehensible" form.

At the end of April, Circle also announced that its Layer 1 network Arc completed a token pre-sale financing of $222 million, with a valuation of $3 billion. a16z led the investment with $75 million, with participation from over a dozen institutions including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Standard Chartered Ventures, ARK Invest, and Bullish.

The expansion of the public chain network and the issuance of native tokens further opened up the ceiling for Circle's business, and its stock price rose accordingly. In May, Circle's stock price increased nearly threefold from its low point of the year ($50), briefly surpassing $140, and currently slightly retreated to $111.

Traditional Financial Systems Becoming More Accepting of Crypto Assets

Today, more and more crypto companies are attempting IPOs. From trading platforms and stablecoin issuers to on-chain payment and custody infrastructure, a large number of crypto enterprises are actively entering traditional capital markets, hoping to obtain more stable financing channels, broader institutional shareholders, and stronger regulatory legitimacy.

At the same time, traditional financial giants are entering the crypto space at an unprecedented pace. Whether it's BlackRock pushing for a Bitcoin ETF, traditional banks exploring stablecoin settlements and on-chain asset custody, or payment institutions integrating into the USDC network, it essentially indicates one thing:

The crypto industry is no longer just an independent "alternative market," but is beginning to undergo deep integration with the global financial system.

In this process, stablecoin companies represented by Circle are becoming the easiest bridge for traditional capital to understand and accept.

Duan Yongping's purchase of Circle is significant for this reason. This does not necessarily mean he has fully turned bullish on Web3, nor does it mean that the value investment system is beginning to embrace all crypto assets. But it at least indicates that stablecoins and the on-chain dollar system have begun to enter the "circle of competence" of some top traditional investors.

From a broader perspective, Circle is just one of the pioneers in the crypto industry that has been "translated" by traditional mainstream capital. As regulatory frameworks gradually become clearer, infrastructure matures, and profit models continue to be validated, more crypto-native enterprises similar to Circle will enter the sights of traditional capital markets in the future.