Terms of Service

Last Updated: September 14, 2026

Hey! Welcome to Circuit.

Circuit is programmable infrastructure that lets businesses accept payments — cards, bank transfers, mobile money, stablecoins — route funds, run billing, and send payouts across the world. We know terms of service aren't anyone's idea of a fun read, but we've tried to keep this one as plain and honest as a payments contract can be.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your use of Circuit and everything connected to it — our dashboard, APIs, SDKs, docs, and websites (we'll just call all of it "Circuit" or the "Service"). By signing up or using Circuit, you're agreeing to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and any other policies we link to along the way.

In these Terms, "we," "us," and "our" mean Stellar Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, doing business as Circuit.

HEADS UP. PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY — IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS IF THERE'S EVER A DISPUTE BETWEEN US. CERTAIN DISPUTES ARE RESOLVED THROUGH MANDATORY BINDING ARBITRATION, NOT COURT OR A JURY, EXCEPT AS NOTED IN SECTION 16.

1. Definitions

To keep the rest of this readable, here's what a few recurring terms mean:

• "Financial Partners" — the banks, card-issuing partners, payment processors, and (where applicable) digital asset custodians or stablecoin issuers we work with to actually move and hold money.
• "Merchant Data" — data you or your customers submit through Circuit, other than data about your use of Circuit itself.
• "Digital Assets" — stablecoins and other blockchain-based assets supported on Circuit.
• "Reserve" — funds we or a Financial Partner hold back from settlement to cover risk (chargebacks, refunds, etc.).
• "Prohibited Businesses List" — our published list of business types that can't process on Circuit, incorporated into these Terms by reference.

2. What is Circuit?

Circuit gives businesses the infrastructure to get paid and pay out — across cards, bank transfers, mobile money, wallets, and stablecoins — plus the billing and payout tools to run on top of it.

Circuit isn't a bank, and we're not a licensed money transmitter in every market we touch. Money moving through Circuit is held and moved by us and our Financial Partners, who hold funds on your behalf under their own licenses and registrations. Where Circuit itself holds money transmission licenses or operates under an agent-of-payee or similar exemption in a given jurisdiction, we'll say so in jurisdiction-specific terms; otherwise, we're relying on our Financial Partners' licensing. We're not a party to whatever you're selling — that's between you and your customers.

3. Eligibility

You need to be 18 or older and able to enter into a contract to use Circuit. If you're signing up on behalf of a company, you're confirming you have the authority to bind that company to these Terms — and "you" then means your company too.

You also confirm you and your business aren't located somewhere under U.S., EU, or UN sanctions, and that you're not on any restricted-party list (OFAC's SDN list included). We screen for this, and we take it seriously because we have to.

4. Accounts, Verification, and Getting Approved

Signing Up. Give us accurate info when you register, and keep it current. You're responsible for everything that happens under your account, so keep your API keys and credentials to yourself. If something looks off, tell us right away at [security@oncircuit.dev].

Getting Verified. Before you can go live and start moving real money, you'll need to complete identity and business verification ("KYC/KYB") — required by us and our Financial Partners, not optional flavor text. We may ask for documents about your business, your owners, and what you're actually selling. We can approve, decline, or put conditions on your account based on this review, and we may re-check things later too.

Your Own Licensing. If the way you use Circuit requires you to hold your own licenses or registrations (for example, operating as a licensed platform, lender, or money services business in your market), that's on you. You represent that you hold, and will maintain, any licenses your business needs independent of Circuit's own compliance obligations.

Keep Us Posted. If your business changes in a material way — new ownership, a different product line, a big jump in volume, entry into a new country — let us know. It affects how we assess risk on your account.

5. Your Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle data, including transaction and cardholder info. Using Circuit means you're okay with us processing that data the way our Privacy Policy describes — and the way card networks, Financial Partners, and the law require. If you're collecting data from your own customers to pass through Circuit, that's on you to get proper consent for.

6. Using Circuit the Right Way

Circuit is for real, lawful businesses. You agree to use the Service according to these Terms, our Prohibited Businesses List, and the rules that card networks and payment schemes require us to follow. A few things you can't do:

• Don't run a prohibited business. No illegal goods or services, and nothing on our Prohibited Businesses List.
• Don't fake it. No fraudulent, unauthorized, or made-up transactions — every charge needs to be for a real sale.
• Don't game the system. No structuring transactions to dodge fees, reporting thresholds, or KYC checks.
• Don't mess with our infrastructure. No poking at our systems, reverse-engineering the Service, or trying to access accounts that aren't yours.
• Don't build a competitor on top of us. You can't use our API to build something that's basically a clone of Circuit's core infrastructure, without talking to us first.
• Don't lie about who you are. Misrepresenting your identity or your business to us or to your customers isn't allowed.

If we think something's off, we can investigate — and that might mean holding funds, pausing your account, or, where the law requires it, looping in regulators or law enforcement.

7. What You Can Do With Circuit

Pay. Accept payments from your customers across cards, bank transfers, mobile money, wallets, and more, with funds settling to you once you're underwritten and in good standing.

Bill. Set up subscriptions, invoices, and usage-based charges. You own the billing logic you configure and your relationship with your customers.

Payout. Send money out to vendors, contractors, or sellers on your own platform, using Circuit's payout rails. You're responsible for having the legal right to send that money.

Link. Customers can save their payment info once and check out faster anywhere Link is live. Link has its own terms, which are part of these Terms too.

Build. If you're integrating with our API, SDKs, or webhooks, use them the way we document them, and don't hammer our systems in a way that messes things up for everyone else.

Changes. We might add, tweak, or sunset features over time. If something big changes and it affects your integration, we'll try to give you a heads-up.

8. Digital Assets and Stablecoins

If you use Circuit to accept, hold, convert, or send Digital Assets:

• This is not a deposit account. Digital Assets are not covered by FDIC or SIPC insurance, and balances held in Digital Assets are not the same as fiat balances held with our Financial Partners.
• Price and de-peg risk is yours. Stablecoins are generally designed to track a reference asset (like the U.S. dollar), but they can and do trade away from that peg, and issuers can freeze, blacklist, or fail to redeem tokens. Circuit doesn't guarantee the value, redemption, or stability of any Digital Asset.
• We rely on third parties. Custody, issuance, and on/off-ramping of Digital Assets is typically handled by third-party custodians, issuers, or licensed virtual asset service providers, not Circuit directly. Their terms and limitations apply in addition to ours.
• Irreversibility. Blockchain transactions are generally irreversible. Circuit is not responsible for losses from sending Digital Assets to an incorrect address, or from network congestion, forks, or protocol-level failures.
• Regulatory status varies by jurisdiction and continues to evolve. Availability of specific Digital Assets may change, including on short notice, in response to legal or regulatory developments.

9. Mobile Money

Where Circuit supports mobile money as a payment or payout method, availability, settlement timing, and limits depend on the local mobile network operator or mobile money provider, and are subject to their own terms, outages, and regulatory requirements in that market. We'll do our best to keep documented limits and availability current, but we don't guarantee uptime or settlement speed of third-party mobile money rails, and local regulatory requirements (registration, reporting, tax withholding) applicable to your business in that market remain your responsibility.

10. Fees, Reserves, and Getting Paid

Fees. Using Circuit comes with fees — per-transaction, FX, payouts, chargebacks — laid out in your pricing plan. We'll give you at least [30] days' notice before increasing existing fees or adding new ones (see Section 21).

Reserves and Holds. Depending on your risk profile, industry, or chargeback history, we or our Financial Partners might hold back a Reserve, delay settlement, or cap how much you can process. We'll try to tell you when we do this and why.

Chargebacks. If a customer disputes a charge, that chargeback (and any related fee) is on you, regardless of why it happened. We'll pull it from your balance or a future settlement — or invoice you directly if there's not enough there.

Currency Conversion. When we convert currencies for you, we use a rate we or our Financial Partners set at the time, which may include a margin over the market rate. We'll disclose our current margin methodology in your dashboard or pricing terms.

11. Security and PCI Compliance

If you handle, transmit, or store cardholder data in connection with Circuit, you agree to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to the extent applicable to your integration, and to promptly notify us at [security@oncircuit.dev] if you know or suspect a data breach involving payment data processed through Circuit. Where we provide tools (like hosted checkout or tokenization) designed to reduce your PCI scope, using them as documented is your responsibility — we're not liable for exposure created by handling data outside the documented, supported flows.

12. Your Customers, Your Business

Whatever you're selling, however you price it, however you handle support and refunds — that's all yours to run. Circuit isn't in the middle of your relationship with your customers, and we're not liable for disputes between you two.

13. Your Data

We call data you or your customers put into Circuit "Merchant Data" (this doesn't include data about how you use Circuit itself, which we use to run, secure, and improve the Service). You own your Merchant Data. You're giving us a license to use, process, and store it so we can actually provide the Service, follow the law, catch fraud, and meet our obligations to Financial Partners and card networks.

Both of us agree to keep the other's confidential info reasonably protected and to only use it for what it's meant for.

14. Staying in Touch

By using Circuit, you're okay with getting electronic communications from us — service updates, security alerts, policy changes. Some of these (the important, non-marketing ones) will come through even if you opt out of promos. Keep your contact info current so we can actually reach you.

15. Ending Things

Closing Your Account. You can close your account whenever you want, once anything outstanding — fees, chargebacks, reserves — is settled.

Us Suspending or Closing Your Account. We can suspend or close your account, with or without notice, if you break these Terms, violate our Prohibited Businesses List, break the law, or if a Financial Partner or card network requires it — or if we reasonably think your account is a risk to us, our partners, or other users.

What Happens Next. Once your account is closed:

• Your access to the Service and API stops.
• You still owe us for anything outstanding — fees, chargebacks, etc.
• We may hold funds in Reserve for a reasonable period (to cover potential chargebacks or refunds) before final settlement, per our reserve policy and what our Financial Partners require.
• Some parts of these Terms stick around after termination — confidentiality, IP, disclaimers, indemnity, liability limits, dispute resolution, and anything you still owe us.

16. Force Majeure

Neither of us is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond reasonable control — natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, internet or telecom failures, banking system outages, or failures of a Financial Partner, card network, or blockchain network. This doesn't excuse payment obligations that arose before the event.

17. Ownership

Circuit and our licensors own the Service — our software, APIs, docs, trademarks, all of it. These Terms give you the right to use the Service, not any ownership stake in it. Don't use our name or logo without asking first.

If you send us feedback, thanks — we can use it without owing you anything for it.

18. No Promises, Just Honesty

CIRCUIT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED — NO GUARANTEES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We don't promise the Service will always be up, secure, or error-free, or that every transaction will process or settle successfully. You're using Circuit at your own risk.

Some places don't let us disclaim certain warranties — if that's you, this section applies only as much as the law allows.

19. Indemnity

If someone comes after us because of something you did — misusing the Service, breaking these Terms or the law, a problem with your transactions or products, a fight with one of your customers, or stepping on someone's IP rights — you agree to cover us: defend us, indemnify us, and hold us harmless for the claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees that come with it.

20. Limitation of Liability

To the extent the law allows, neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — lost profits, lost data, that kind of thing — arising out of these Terms, even if advised of the possibility.

Each party's total liability under these Terms is capped at whichever is greater: the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or $100.

This cap doesn't apply to: (a) either party's indemnification obligations under Section 19; (b) a party's gross negligence, fraud, or willful misconduct; (c) your obligation to pay chargebacks, fees, or amounts you owe under Section 10; or (d) either party's breach of confidentiality obligations under Section 13.

You must bring any claim within one year of when it arose, or it's waived — except where the law requires a longer period.

21. Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

Let's Try Talking First. Before either of us files anything, we both agree to try to resolve the dispute informally. Send written notice to [legal@oncircuit.dev] (or we'll send it to the email on your account) describing the issue and how you'd like it resolved. We'll have 60 days to sort it out before either of us moves to arbitration.

Agreement to Arbitrate. Except as carved out below, you and Stellar Technologies, Inc. agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies.

Opting Out. You can opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to Stellar Technologies, Inc., 200 5th Ave, New York, NY, within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms. If you opt out, disputes will be handled in the courts described below instead.

Location and Rules. Arbitration will be seated in New York, New York, conducted by a single arbitrator, and (where feasible) conducted by videoconference. Each party bears its own attorneys' fees unless the arbitrator finds a claim frivolous or the law requires otherwise. We'll cover the arbitration filing and administrative fees for claims under $10,000, absent a finding of frivolousness.

Class Action Waiver. Disputes must be brought individually, not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator can't award relief to anyone beyond the individual party bringing the claim. Both of us waive the right to a jury trial.

Carve-Outs. Either of us may seek injunctive relief in court to prevent unauthorized use of the Service or infringement of intellectual property rights, and either of us may bring a claim in the state or federal courts located in New York, New York for anything not subject to arbitration, or to enforce or challenge this arbitration agreement itself.

Governing Law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs interpretation and enforcement of this Section 21.

22. IP Complaints

Think something accessible through Circuit infringes your IP? Email [legal@oncircuit.dev] with enough detail for us to look into it — what the material is and what your rights are. In appropriate cases, we'll take action consistent with the DMCA, including terminating repeat infringers.

23. The Fine Print

Updates to These Terms. We might update these Terms now and then. We'll give you notice of material changes before they take effect — at least 30 days for changes that materially reduce your rights or increase your obligations. If you keep using Circuit after that, you're agreeing to the new version.

Extra Terms. Some features — Link, specific payment methods, Digital Assets — come with their own additional terms. Those are part of these Terms too, and they win if there's a conflict for that specific feature.

The Whole Deal. These Terms, plus any order forms, additional terms, and linked policies, are the entire agreement between us about your use of Circuit, and replace anything we agreed to before.

Severability. If part of these Terms doesn't hold up, the rest still does — except that if any part of the class-action waiver in Section 21 is found unenforceable, all of Section 21 becomes unenforceable.

No Waiver. If we don't enforce something right away, that doesn't mean we've given up the right to later.

Assignment. You can't hand these Terms off to someone else without our okay; we can, say, if we're acquired or merge.

Export Rules. You'll follow applicable export control and sanctions laws while using Circuit.

Not for Everyone Else. Besides what's explicitly stated, these Terms don't give anyone outside you and us any rights.

Reach Us. Stellar Technologies, Inc., 200 5th Ave, New York, NY, doing business as Circuit. Or just email [support@oncircuit.dev].

24. Businesses We Can't Support

Some businesses just can't run on Circuit — because of law, network rules, or risk. That includes illegal goods or services, unlicensed money transmission, unregistered securities or investment schemes, counterfeit goods, and anything else on our published Prohibited Businesses List, which is part of these Terms. We can update that list as laws and network rules change.