Circle Leaves a Fortune on the Table by Going Public at $31

Circle left a lot of money on the table with its initial public offering.

Stablecoin issuer Circle’s CRCL stock launched on Thursday at $31, above its predicted range, which turned out to be highly pessimistic. Circle’s stock started trading at $69, well over twice its offering price, and closed above $83, up 163%.

That left $1.7 billion on the table, far more than the $1.1 billion Circle made from the sale.

And CRCL has continued to soar on Friday, rising steadily to $119, up 284%. Meaning Circle’s Wall Street advisors dramatically underestimated demand.

Circle’s USDC stablecoin is the No. 2 by market capitalization, with $61 billion in circulation. That’s behind Tether’s USDT, with a $154 billion market cap. The third largest is USDS by Sky (formerly Maker) at $7.1 billion.

However, Circle has a significant advantage in compliance as a U.S.-based company that has also met the EU’s requirements for crypto assets (MiCA). Tether recently moved to El Salvador from the British Virgin Islands, and has refused to comply with MiCA, leading several major exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, to delist it in the EU.

When Coinbase, Circle’s partner in USDC, went public in April 2021, it was also a big hit, but it signaled the top of the market before a multi-year bear run.

Circle last month went live with its Circle Payments Network, bringing USDC to cross-border payments.

Crypto Firms Consider IPOs

Other crypto companies are contemplating going public, including exchange Kraken and cross-border payments firm Ripple, although those are said to be looking at 2026 debuts.

New York-based Crypto exchange Gemini has filed a confidential S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), indicating it wants to go public as well, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. If true, that would mean the co-founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, are likely considering an IPO of their own this year.

Circle’s reception on Wall Street certainly makes that sound like a reasonable possibility.