Circle to sponsor Chelsea shirts with USDC in 2026/27

Circle will be Chelsea’s principal front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2026/27 season, the companies announced on Aug. 28. USDC branding will appear on the men’s, women’s and academy match shirts.

USDC is a stablecoin designed to maintain a value close to one U.S. dollar. Circle backs USDC with cash and cash-equivalent assets, and most reserves are held in a government money market fund that can include short-term U.S. Treasury securities and Treasury-backed lending.

USDC’s terms state the token pays no interest and that holders have no claim on returns generated by the reserve assets.

At the end of June about $73.3 billion of USDC was outstanding. Circle reported $668 million in reserve income for the second quarter and $701 million in total revenue and reserve income; reserve income therefore represented roughly 95% of that combined total.

The sponsorship places USDC on a high-visibility advertising space in world football. The announcement noted the release is ‘not an invitation to buy, hold, or trade crypto or use a financial service.’

Chelsea also renewed a partnership with the exchange BingX as training-kit partner for 2026/27, so supporters will see two different crypto brands on club apparel.

The sponsorship coincides with a Premier League agreement to remove gambling companies from front-of-shirt positions from the 2026/27 season, creating available shirt real estate that financial and crypto firms are contesting.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority reported it had written to 21 clubs and identified 18 arrangements involving 13 clubs and financial providers that lacked FCA authorization. The regulator noted those figures included non-crypto firms and past deals and that a lack of authorization did not automatically indicate illegality; for most arrangements it found no evidence of regulatory breaches.

A logo on a match shirt does not explain where consumers can buy a stablecoin, who will custody it, how to redeem or sell it, what fees apply or what legal protections exist in their jurisdiction.