Is CRCL the Most Expensive Fintech Stock?

Olivia Capozzalo & Camila Russo
June 24, 2025

gm, Defiers!

Today’s big story:

• Nearly three weeks post-IPO, Circle’s valuation is looking stretched

Plus:

• Markets surge on ceasefire news and dovish remarks from The Fed
• Dragonfly-backed stablecoin blockchain Codex launches mainnet with USDC support
• MegaETH-based DEX GTE raises $15 million from Paradigm
• Aave DAO votes to expand the top DeFi lending protocol to Aptos
• SSV 2.0 And Based Applications: Decentralized Infrastructure for Secure, Scalable Ethereum Staking [SPONSORED]
• The Stellar Development Roadmap Paves Way for Expansion and Network Scalability [SPONSORED]

Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.

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While banks warm up to stablecoins and fintechs retrofit them into legacy systems, DeFi is building for the ultimate use case: stables designed not just for moving capital, but for growing it. Sustainably.

A new generation of yield-bearing, institutional-grade stablecoins has emerged, going beyond payment rails as financial primitives in their own right. These composable, regulated stables are multi-asset backed, combining DeFi native performance with the resilience and trust of blue-chip RWAs. Their competitive APYs are counterbalanced by low risk profiles and compliance. These "all-weather" stablecoins are poised to scale beyond hype into long-term impact, but that means prioritizing the right infrastructure now.

Here's what that looks like — and why it matters for DAOs, institutions, and investors today.

Read more: Everyone’s Building with Stablecoins. Few Are Building Them Right

We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today

Is Circle the Most Overpriced Stock in Crypto and Fintech?

It’s looking that way.

Circle debuted on the NYSE at $69 per share on June 5, 2025. Since then, CRCL has gone parabolic, at one point trading more than 9.5 times its IPO price of $31. Just yesterday, it climbed to a high above $290, a surge that briefly put its market cap neck-and-neck with Coinbase.

Optimism around U.S. stablecoin regulation (the GENIUS Act just passed the Senate last week), continued USDC adoption, and the dearth of pure-play stablecoin stocks have all helped fuel this enthusiasm.

That froth pushed Circle’s market cap to roughly $66 billion yesterday, effectively matching the supply of its flagship token, USDC, currently with around $62 billion in circulation. In other words, investors are now valuing the issuer at the same level as its token’s monetary base.

When compared against Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD), two of the most relevant publicly traded fintech/crypto companies, CRCL seems even frothier.

Coinbase is the largest centralized crypto exchange in the U.S. and also serves as Circle’s mint/burn partner, where Circle pays Coinbase fees on every USDC issuance and redemption, which materially dents its operating income. Robinhood captures retail crypto volume and earns payment-for-order-flow revenue, making its stock a play on consumer crypto engagement.

Yet even against these high-growth peers, Circle’s 33× price to sales ratio (P/S) and +3000 price to earnings ratio (P/E) look eye-popping.

To fully gauge Circle’s valuation stretch, consider how it stacks up against:

• Pure-play digital payments: PayPal (PYPL), Block (SQ) which have P/E in the ~10× range
  
• Neobanks and “buy now, pay later” fintechs: Affirm (AFRM), SoFi (SOFI), which have growth-driven P/E or forward P/E multiples in the 30× P/E range
  
• Legacy card networks: Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), which also have P/E in the high 30s

Circle’s IPO rally has made it arguably the most richly valued stock in both crypto and fintech with valuation ratios, especially with price to earnings in the thousands. That’s orders of magnitude more than peers.

Unless USDC adoption and revenue engines accelerate to match these lofty expectations, CRCL’s multiples look stretched compared to both crypto and traditional financial incumbents.

With love,

Cami, founder of The Defiant

📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

	TICKER	VALUE	24H
	Bitcoin	$105,079	3.62 %
	Ethereum	$2,411.97	6.97 %
	XRP	$2.17	8.41 %
	BNB	$638.77	3.31 %
	Solana	$144.2	7.40 %

MessariPortals	MINDSHARE Rank	MINDSHARE % Change (7d)
	MINDSHARE Rank	MINDSHARE % Change (7d)
Solana SOL	6	41.55%
Avalanche AVAX	20	28.95%
TRON TRX	8	-19.81%
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This is the news that mattered in the past 24 hrs

1. Crypto markets continue to recover today, with BTC surging back near $106,000, boosted by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks and reports of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
2. Stablecoin blockchain Codex launched its mainnet with native USDC support; the blockchain previously raised nearly $16 million in a funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Coinbase and Circle.
3. Speed-focused DEX GTE has raised $15 million in an exclusive investment round from Paradigm, bringing its total funding to $25 million; the DEX is launching on MegaETH’s testnet, which went live in March.
4. The Aave DAO voted unanimously to expand the leading DeFi lending protocol — with a TVL of over $40 billion — to Layer 1 blockchain Aptos, marking the protocol’s first non-EVM deployment.

🎬WATCH

In the latest episode of The Defiant Podcast, Cami spoke with Emin Gün Sirer, CEO and Founder of Ava Labs. They discuss the growth of gaming on Avalanche, how the chain compares to other top Layer 1s, and the role of stablecoins and central banks in Avalanche’s ecosystem.

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